Lil' Blueberry
by BreakInCaseOfEmergency
Summary: When the Group, with the help of new guy Rick Grimes escape the Department store in Atlanta, what if Merle Dixon wasn't the only person that they left behind? This is the story of Merle and Aubrey, and their journey to be reunited with the group. Will they make it? Or will another offer come their way? Rated M for Merle's racism :3 MERLE/OC
1. Left 4 Dead

Authors Note! :D

Hello hello and welcome! To my second Walking Dead Story :D

I hope that you enjoy it, I know that Merle is one of my favourite characters so I couldn't pass up the chance to do a story with him as a main character :3

Please enjoy and give your feedback :D

Aubrey had been part of Rick Grimes distraction for the group to escape from the department store, she had been driving a car just like Glenn had been after wandering through the streets like a walker beside them, it was a horrible experience but at least she had found out a way that she could get past the Walkers in dire situations if she needed to. Honestly she hadn't expected that it would work, but, she had been both relieved and pleasantly surprised when it did.

Now however, she had been left behind.

They had drove off in the back of the truck without her, she had jumped out of her car and left it running, causing a distraction to get all the walkers to draw closer to it with the noise. But they seemed to have not taken any notice that she was attempting to make her way back to the store on foot, and had driven off without her, leaving her in a walker infested city center, with her tiny little knife as protection.

It would be safe to say that she was currently bricking herself with fear, and she would have made for the nearest building if she hadn't have heard shouts from the department store roof. Was that Merle Dixon up there? She asked herself with a small frown, had he been left behind too? Biting her lip she hurried down the side of the building, the walkers from before were milling around in the shop front, and upstairs no doubt, but she quietly snuck past most of them, taking out one by the fire escape stairs with her knife.

Making a face of disgust at the gore on her hands, she swiftly cleaned it on her rag she kept with her, and climbed up the stairs with only a second delay. She would make it to the roof and see what was going on up there!

Finally, when she popped her head over the top of the store's roof, she saw Merle still handcuffed to the pipe, screaming and cursing about being left behind which you would do, because being chained up like that, with walkers trying to get in, was not an ideal situation. It was like he had just been left there to die! With a little grunt of effort she swung herself over the ledge and hurried over to Dixon, he wasn't her favourite person, but god he didn't deserve this!

"Merle!" she gasped "Are you alright? Let's get you out of these..."

Hopping over the pipe she grabbed the wrench out of the toolbox and smiled swiftly at him;

"Hold still."

And with that she began to try and unscrew the rusted bolts from the top of the metal he was attached to.

Merle had been tied up the chain with a pair of handcuffs by that officer friendly guy. Considering he had punched the guy out he could respect that decision to a certain degree. He would have respected the guy's dedication and all that shit. But what really got Merle angry, the reason why he was shouting as loud as he could, was because that black fucker "T-Dog" had dropped the keys down a drain and left him here to die! Naturally he was feeling some kinda way about that,

"Yer dam' fuckin' ni'r asshol'!" he shouted out loudly, no doubt bringing the Walkers closer to him, "I be' yer drop'd th'm keys on purpos'! I ev'r fin' yer, I'm gun' fuc' yer up!"

He blinked a little bit when someone gasped his name. Turning, he spotted Aubrey making her way towards him from the fire escape ladder. His eyes widened and he frantically tugged at the handcuffs,

"Com' on gir' yer got'a get me out'a here!" he urged her quickly, "Tha' no goo' piec'a shi' ni'r dropp'd te key down a drain!"

When she began to work on the pipe itself he looked towards the door, which was beginning to bulge,

"Hey now darlin' it ain' lik' I ain' appreciatin' tis or nothin'..." he urged her as he saw fingers round the door edges, "But tem' bit'rs are gettin' migh'y hungr'y an' too clos' fer my likin'!"

Aubrey was trying as hard as she could to actually get the pipe to budge but it was old and rusted and so it was taking a little bit longer than she would have liked, especially with the walkers being attracted to the sounds of them up here, and their smells no doubt, and so, she was trying frantically to get the first stiff turns of the bolt out of the way.

Eventually it became easier to budge and she undid the first bolt, prying the pole away so she could slide the cuffs off, she had freed Merle and now they could get the hell out of here, she hoped they wouldn't have to fight many walkers though, her arms were killing her from all that effort to try and get him free.

"There!" she grinned "Here, use this for a weapon, just in case you need it."

With that Aubrey tossed him the wrench and took out her small knife from her little holster on her leg and looked to the door, it was bulging a little bit and it worried her.

"Well let's not just rush off, we should have an idea of where we're going before we get down, we won't have much time to think or speak with all the walkers down there!" Aubrey pointed out, casting her gaze down to the street "Lots of them are still in the store, but that could change if we make too much noise."

Biting her lip she looked around the city, rather helplessly, and she didn't know what to do or where to do; "So where do you think we should go?"

Merle was getting more than a bit anxious about this whole situation considering his life was in the hands of someone he could reasonably lift with one hand. He was just hoping that good things came in little packages because he had honestly not gotten to know her very well. Probably because he had spent most of his time with Daryl to be honest.

When she managed to get the first bolt gone his eyes widened happily and he tugged hard on the cuffs. When she managed to get the pipe up enough he yanked and the cuff came loose, freeing him from the damned pipe. Grinning happily, he stood up quickly,

"Jes's Chri't yer did it!" he exclaimed happily, "Alrigh' now le's ge' te hell out'a here! I don' kno' 'bout yer but I don' wan' te be anywher' nea' here anymor'!"

Grabbing the wrench when she threw it to him he paused when she explained that they would have to have a plan. Annoyed, he thought for a moment before nodding across the street to a hunting goods store,

"We can ge' in ther', ge' som' weap'ns an' then go ou' te bac'." he suggested, "Walk'rs are stup'd enough te no' thin' abou' goin' roun' te bac' til we're gon'!"

When she asked him where they should go he was stopped from answering by the sound of the door groaning. Swearing a little bit, he glanced to the next building. He moved to the edge and noticed that the roof of the next building was a floor lower than the one they were on and very close too,

"Alrigh' darlin'..." he smirked a little bit, "I say we jum' this her' gap, go down stairs ther' an' ten go ou' through te sportin' goo's plac' yea'?"

Aubrey nodded with a happy grin, she was honestly suprised that she could have done that, she wasn't very strong but she assumed that it was the adrenaline that was rushing through her that enabled her to actually free Merle from the pipe. If she hadn't have been able to she didn't know what she would have done, there was no way she was going into the store to get something stronger than the saw to help her out.

"Yeah...I don't think sticking around longer than we need to is going to be a great idea." she stated, looking with wide eyes at the faces of the walkers that were peeking through the gap in the door, she didn't know what was keeping them out if she was honest with herself.

Peering across the street she saw the hunting goods place, to be honest she wouldn't have even thought of looking there, probably because she would have assumed it would have been looted and cleared a long time ago, but it was a goal, a place to try and get to, and hopefully they would have something more useful than her little tidgy knife in there.

"Alright, that sounds like a plan. It would make me feel better not wandering the streets of Atlanta with a fancy pocket knife for protection, I don't know about you?" she grinned, just glad to be in this situation with someone else, and someone else competent as well, Merle was a great hunter or so she had heard, especially if he was anything like Daryl.

Gasping when she heard the door groan she hurried over to Merle and looked at the building a short jump away. Aubrey fought the feeling to look down and she bit her lip, she wasn't the biggest fan of heights, but it looked like the only way that she was going to be getting away from this walker infested building any time soon so, it was going to have to do.

"I'll go first, otherwise I know I'm going to wimp out." she sighed, pushing her nerd glasses up her nose, she took a running start and propelled herself off the edge of the building with a last push off with her foot, she made the other building safely with more than a few inches between her and the edge.

Merle had to admit that the fact that she had done it was startling. She was a little waif of a woman but she'd managed to turn the bolts almost as easily as he himself would have been able to do if he had both hands. But regardless of how strange it was, it had happened and he could not me more glad that it did because the only other option for him was to cut through his wrist. And he had seriously, seriously, not been looking forward to that at all,

"Yea' they're hungry fer ther' manwhic' an' I ain' gun' be stickin' aroun' te foot te bill." he told her with a small grin even in this situation. He was up on his feet, had a heavy object and was free from the cuffs. He was feeling a lot better even about this situation, "Cours' I won' min' bein' abl' te tak' a few'a tem fuck'rs wit' me... but livin' is bett'r."

He admitted to himself that they were probably unlikely to find anything too big or too useful in the hunting goods store but it was a start right? They needed to get some form of long range weapon and right now a hunting crossbow would go down a right treat with Merle. He smirked a little bit,

"Yer jus' a bi'a a wus' now ain'cha?" he teased her with a little smirk, "Tha' lil' knif'a yers could' keep yer saf' so lon' as yer use it righ'!"

Seeing that she wasn't too happy with this plan, Merle was actually planning on grabbing her and throwing her over. She'd make it. She was light and he was strong enough to lift and throw her. When she jumped anyway he grinned a little bit before following her over, landing easily from the height,

"Well tha' wer'n't tha' har' now was it?" he joked before leading her down the deserted stairs to the bottom floor. He stopped her at the front door. Outside it was a straight run across the street to the sporting goods store. The problem was that the walkers attacking the department store were just a few feet to the right, even if they weren't looking their way, "So... up fer runnin' it?"

Now that Aubrey was on the other side of the building she thought that it would be the right time to respond to Merle's little comment about her being a wuss. She was all for harmless teasing as long as the person didn't mind having a few jibes thrown back at them in the process. Since she didn't really know Merle she was unsure of how he would actually respond to her friendly teasing, well hopefully seeing as she just saved his ass.

"Well I guess you owe this wuss one big favour for saving your ass." she grinned, with wink "And I'd be more than happy to swap my little knife for your wrench if you think that you can use it better than I can."

Wiggling the knife in the air, as if making the offer, Aubrey laughed and then followed Merle down the stairs of the store next door, they were moving pretty fast and that was good it meant that any walkers that were in here wouldn't be able to snag them easily as they darted past rooms on their way down to the bottom level of the shop, where the exit was out onto the street.

"I think I can make it across the street, but what are we going to do if the shop is locked, breaking in will make a lot of noise and attract the walkers to us?" she asked, more than a little concerned "I guess all we can do is hope that the alarm system isn't working, or, that it's already unlocked."

As Aubrey readied herself to leave the store and make the dash outside she held her little knife tightly in her grip and set her attention on the store right in front of her, her hand hovered by the handle to the shops door. Glancing back at Merle, she saw that he was ready and yanked open the door.

"Alright then...lets go." she whispered, as she made a dash across the street towards the other store, making sure to mind where her feet were going so she didn't tread on something and make a noise that would attract the walkers attention.

He chuckled a little bit when she looked at him to respond to his comment about calling her a wuss. Fair does to her though; she only tried to respond once she was already over the jump so didn't have anything to be a wuss over anymore. He smiled a little bit when she decided she would tease him back,

"Nah lil' girli' when yer pulled mah ass out'a te fir' bac' ther' yer got yerself an instruct'r on how te be badas'!" he joked with her, smirking as he did so, "But if yer wan' I'll trad' yer lil knif' fer mah wrenc'... if it'll mak' yer feel all saf'r."

He chuckled a little bit, knowing that the wrench was too heavy for her to actually use. Smirking a little bit, he twirled the wrench effortlessly before moving on. They needed to get moving and they needed to keep from being attacked by Walkers until they were sure to have the advantage. When she raised the concern about the door being locked he nodded,

"Well if it's loc'd we break te glass. Bar' wit' me on tha' plan... we break te glass, grab whatev'r we can fin' quic', ten we tail it ou' te bac'." he suggested, "Tey'll ge' stuc' in te stor' an' giv' us tim' te put som' distanc' betwe'n us an' tem."

When she was ready they both dashed across the street towards the other store. He wasn't as subtle as she was but then again he was bigger than she was. Thankfully they didn't have to use his plan as the door was open. Hurrying her inside, he closed it and pushed a display case in front of it and in front of the windows too, blocking them off from view. Sighing a little bit, he looked around quickly. Spotting one Walker trying to pick itself up off the ground he smashed it's brains in before looking around for supplies,

"See wha' tey've go' her' yea'?" he suggested, "Kniv's an' shi' are bes'... but any campin' goods or shi' like tha'd be grea' too."

Aubrey, when she saw that the door was open was very very relieved and she hurried inside, just glad to be away from all the walkers and they were still very much distracted away from them by the department store and the noise from the car she had left a block in the other direction to them. Biting her lip a little she let her shoulders sag as she relaxed now they were in here, as long as they were quiet they should be alright.

Jumping when Merle suddenly killed a walker that she hadn't noticed in the store, she felt her heart hammering in her chest and she looked around the dusty old shop more carefully. This was the kind of place as a kid she had been fascinated by, all of the pointy and rather scary objects.

"Do you think that there will be any more Walkers in here?" she whispered quietly, trying not to make a lot of noise until she knew for sure "Do you think we should check or should we just get out of here as quickly as possible?"

When she heard she needed to find some knives, and camping gear she looked around, it was already heavily looted, and the display cases smashed, although as she looked closer, she saw many of the knives had been left, and it was mostly the shotguns that had been taken.

"There are a few knives here, enough so we can have two each just in case." Aubrey stated, taking one out of the case and twirling it a little bit, handing two to Merle she took the last one for herself.

In another part of the shop, she saw that it too had been looted but there were still things there that were useful she thought, there were several small tents still left, although they might be slightly damaged, they were better than nothing, and some itchy picnic blankets were better than nothing too.

"Do you think we'll need these tents and things, it might take us a while to get back to camp, if we're even going to try and get back to camp."

Merle could tell that Aubrey wasn't used to all this Walker killing yet but he couldn't really blame her considering she didn't appear to have had anything to do with killing before the Walkers, whereas he had been hunting since the age of eight. He grinned a little bit at her when she jumped in surprise at him killing the Walker she had missed. He began to look around the store for anymore before she even asked him too. Poking his head out of the back room he shook his head,

"Ther' don' seem te be anymor'." he admitted with a little grin, "Jus' te on' I fuck'd up bac' ther'. I've chec'd te bac' room but we shoul' probably be as quie' as we can anyway yer kno'?"

Seeing that there were indeed knives left he grinned a little bit before collecting a machete-sized weapon and one that was just regular sized. Hiding them away on his person within easy reach, Merle nodded to her with a grin,

"Goo' fin' ther' girli'." he complimented her with a wink, "No' jus' a pretty fac' I see."

When she found the tents he paused a little bit before shrugging. Were they going back to camp? Yeah, if only so he could kill T-Dog. In the end he just scratched his stubble,

"Yea' migh' as well tak' em. We'll go bac' to te camp but Imma kill tha' bitc' T-Dog so migh' mak' a goo' peac' offerin'." he mused before picking up some of the small propane tanks for portable camp cookers, "Oh I thin' we're gun' tak' som'a thes'. Tey'll mak' fer grea' distrac'ns."

Aubrey automatically relaxed when she heard that there were no more walkers in the shop, she would be able to concentrate on actually finding and packing some of the things that they would need without looking over her shoulder every few seconds. Searching for something to help them carry the stuff, she managed to find a hiking backpack, it was a little ripped but, it was still usable.

"Here, we can put all of these in here, to make it a little bit easier to carry them all." Aubrey suggested, beginning to pack the bag full of the few things she had managed to find.

When Merle picked up the canisters, she smiled lightly, she thought it might be better to wrap the blankets around them so they didn't make loud clinking noises while they moved, and so, she began to place them all wrapped up into the duffle bag, as many as would fit that was.

"Of course, I have brains to match the pretty face." she grinned "And the brawn too." Aubrey laughed quietly, showing her rather non-existent muscles "If you can find any more cloth or blankets, we can wrap the rest of the metal canisters in them so they don't make noise against the rest of them."

Unable to stop her mouth popping open when she heard that Merle was going to kill T-Dog when he got back to camp, she couldn't help but think that she needed to delay him, try and change his mind! There was no way that she was going to allow him to do something like that. He was angry that was for sure, she was angry too, she could be dead by now! But that wasn't the answer surely?

"Merle...I know that they left you, they left me too, but, surely causing more losses isn't the answer?" she asked softly.

The silence she received in response was not very reassuring.

End of the first chapter! :D

I hope that you enjoyed it everyone, review if you feel like! :D

Thank you for reading ^^


	2. Burnt Bones

Authors Note:

Hey howdy hey! Please enjoy this new chapter I have to offer you O Reader :3

I am hoping that you enjoy it, and you get to see a side of Merle that perhaps wouldn't have come across in the show before, I hope it's not too OOC D:

Merle and Aubrey had been on the trail of the group all the way from their camping space in Atlanta. It had been a rather long journey when they were on foot and had to avoid the Walkers who they couldn't lose simply by being faster; as the group could in their cars. But he wasn't complaining about it. Of course they had seen things that they otherwise wouldn't have seen if they had been moving faster.

Jim for example.

Now Merle had never especially liked Jim, or anyone other than Daryl before being saved by Aubrey, but he had definately been one of his favourites. The guy knew his way around a motor and had been trying to fix up a Harley for Merle to use. In the end he had killed the man when they had stumbled across the Walker of him, stabbing him right in the forehead with a hunting knife. If he ever became one of those things he wanted someone to do the same thing to him.

As they had walked he had learnt a lot more about Aubrey and actually gotten to like her a lot more than he ever thought he would. They joked and laughed a little bit but there was also a spark of sexual tension underneath the jokes. Once they were back with the group he would see about making more of that but until then he doubted they'd be safe enough to have a little roll in the hay.

Sniffing the air in confusion, he turned to Aubrey,

"Yer smell tha'?" he asked her cautiously, "Smells lik'... lik' burnin' but wha'? Burnin'... burnin'..."

As he mused what the burning smell was exactly his eyes widened when the once imposing structure of the CDC came into few, still smoking and burning. He checked the tracks again, certain that the group and (more importantly) Daryl had come this way. His eyes widened and he tore towards the burning building, looking for signs that Daryl had left,

"It's te smell'a burnin' mea'..." he whimpered a little bit as he tried to examine burnt corpses, Walker or otherwise, "Daryl! DARYL!"

Aubrey was more tired than she had ever been in her life, she was constantly scared and worried about what was going to happen to her in her sleep, if one of those walker herds came by them there was no way that they were going to be able to survive it. Although they had been lucky, the only trouble they had when it came to walkers was a large group of them, about 7, had stumbled across their path one afternoon. It had been messy but she and Merle had gotten them easily.

Despite the fear, she had been happy to learn more and more about Merle, he was a great guy and despite his rough outward appearance she could tell that there would be a little softie underneath waiting for her to come and discover. She was beginning to discover him already, although they couldn't let their guard down completely, he was opening up to her more and more each day.

When he called her attention to the smell in the air, Aubrey was glad that he had noticed it too, there was an acrid charcoal smell in the air, and she couldn't help but want to gag a little when it got especially strong;

"Yeah I can smell it too, it smells disgusting..." she whispered softly, drawing closer to Merle's side, they were following the groups tracks and it looked like they had been headed to the CDC "Maybe someone decided to attack the walkers en mass, like we did with the gas canisters?"

Although, when they rounded the corner and saw the whole CDC had burnt to the ground she gasped softly, putting her hands to cover her mouth. Oh if the group had been in there when that had happened, she didn't know what she would do, all that had kept her going was the thought of being reunited with the group once more, being able to sleep soundly in a larger group.

"Merle." Aubrey hushed softly "We don't even know if they were in this explosion or not, they could have gotten out, they could have gotten here after it happened, turned around and left?"

Merle was beyond reason with worry for his little brother right now. He was the older brother damn it! His father had told him one thing before he had vanished into the night and that was to protect his little brother! He had said;

You know the reason why big brothers are born first? So that they can protect their younger brothers.

Merle had tried his best to adhere to that little rule even when he 'forgot' to follow such 'trival' things such as laws and such. He had always done his best to look out for his little brother. Even when the Walkers had come he had been with his brother, the two of them fighting back to back against all the dangers of this new world. He gritted his teeth,

"Tey cam' her'..." he muttered frantically, looking around the burning wreckage for any signs of his brother or the group beind inside, "Tey cam' her' an' tey weren' lon' in arrivin' befor' te fir's beg'n. It's in te trac' an'... an' god dam' it! DARYL!"

He was getting more and more frantic now though. When he saw another small pile of bodies his heart sank when he recognised the slightly burnt and very frayed vest top that his younger brother was so fond of wearing. Moving closer to it, in a silent daze, Merle pushed the bodies off from on top of the piece of clothing to look at it better. Holding it in his hands, he began to realise that it was his brother's. That meant he had been here and it meant that he was probably...

Just the thought made Merle begin to break down in tears. He wasn't one of those pansies who cried and sat on the ground though. Merle's tears were accompanied by a righteous fury. Standing up, he kicked the closest burnt corpse,

"AH! DARYL!" He cried out in anger and anguish, kicking repeatedly at the Walker's burnt cropse. His kicks began to get weaker before he growled out, at no one in particular, "Why mah lil' broth'r? Why Daryl? Why no' me? I'm te old'r broth'r! I'm suppos'd te protec' him!"

It was only after most of his anger was gone that, feeling drained, Merle slumped against the remains of the CDC's wall and sobbed and cried.

Aubrey didn't really know much about tracking and so she was happy to allow Merle to tell her that the group had been here, thats where the tracks were heading anyway, where they had been following for days, although, she thought that it would be more than likely that they hadn't got caught in the blast here, she couldn't see the RV, and she couldn't see any of the other cars either.

They must have gotten away on them before the fire began.

Jumping when Merle shouted Daryl's name, she wanted to tell him to hush so they didn't attract more walkers, however, there weren't any around, and he was in emotional pain, she didn't think telling him to be quiet would really go down that well.

As soon as she saw Merle picking up Daryl's vest Aubrey's heart sank a little but she still clung to the hope that because the cars weren't here, that the groups bodies weren't here either. She just hoped Daryl hadn't been left behind like they had. Biting her lip she tentatively approached Merle, he was so angry, and so upset she had never seen him like this before, so she didn't know how to approach him.

"Merle..." she whispered softly, kneeling down in front of him, it was so strange to see him cry, it tugged at her heart and she didn't know what to do, she had never seen a man cry before "Merle we don't know if he was caught in the fire, although his vest is here he could have lost it another way, the cars aren't here that I can see, so maybe the group got away before the fire spread?"

Wanting to reach out and give him a hug, Aubrey merely bit her lip and continued to sit in front of him, taking a brief look around, she narrowed her eyes as she tried to try and find any signs of the group, there weren't any other people's things she recognised around here, it was possible that it could have ripped off because of something else;

"The least we can do is check for any other signs of him, if he...passed...his other things would be here, right? We didn't see any so...don't give up just yet. If he is as tough as you, then he wouldn't be stopped that easily, Daryl will be fine."

Merle was crying and that hadn't happened since his mother had died. And even then the tears had been short and bitter, nothing at all like these ones he was shedding over his brother. Well maybe it was because he actually felt some kind of connection to Daryl. He always had been closer to Daryl than either of their parents. He closed his eyes tightly,

"Ther' no trac's leadin' away from her' tha' I can see." he told her bluntly as he tried to pull himself together, "An' ev'n if ther' wer'... te dam'd fir' has gott'n rid'a tem aroun' her'. Ev'n if he liv'd. If te grou' liv'd... we ain' go' a clu' wher' te hell tey're goin'."

He was managing to pull himself together enough to stand up fully again and begin to look around. Merle was distraught still though so he definitely wasn't putting his best foot forwards. When she mentioned how tough he was, Merle just shook his head,

"Daryl lik's te grou'." he told her with a little chuckle, "If someon' go' lef' behin' or wen' missin' he'da gon' aft'r tem. It's no' mah broth'r toughn'ss I quest'n. It's te stup'dity or som'a te peopl' in te grou'."

After looking for tracks for a while he shook his head. He wasn't sure if it was because of the fire or that they had never been there, but he couldn't see any tracks. Moving over to an army jeep, Merle kicked the door before holding tightly onto the metal,

"Yer kno' wha' mah ol' man tol' me befor' I nev'r saw him again?" he asked her, looking down at the green metal of the jeep, "He sai' tha' it was my job as an old'r broth'r te protec' mah lil' broth'r... tha' tha' was wha' big broth'rs wer' bor' te do. An' yer kno' wha'? I fail'd. Din' I? I fail'd mah ol' man an' mah lil' broth'r."

Aubrey didn't know how she was going to reply to Merle when he didn't seem to want to be optimistic about this at all, in times like this there really wasn't a lot of hope around, although, she wanted to be able to make him feel better, to show him that just because he had seen his vest didn't mean that his brother wasn't in the land of the living any more.

"Well if the group lived, and your brother is with them, it is better than knowing that he's dead right? He's alive and he will be for a very long time, I didn't know him but he went out hunting on his own for days at a time in the group, so, I'm sure with the group he'll be more than able to handle himself." Aubrey whispered softly, trying once again to reassure him.

Biting her lip when Merle stood up and just left her on the floor, Aubrey sighed softly and she couldn't help but think that he was trying to be a little too tough in this situation. As she stood up again, she cast her eyes around, keeping a look out for Walkers, there weren't any that she could see and so she turned her attention back to Merle again, wanting to make sure that he was alright.

"Well if you are that worried that he might have passed...why don't we check?" she asked softly, wandering back over to the pile of bodies where he had found the vest "If he is dead he should be around here somewhere, right? We should check, that way you know."

When Merle told her that he thought that he had failed his brother, failed his father, Aubrey shook her head, she didnt think that he had failed him at all, they had been tracking him for days and that was something that not many families would do for each other in times like this. They only stopped now because they didn't know where to look, and it would be pointless to put themselves in danger.

"No you didn't fail." she whispered softly "You've been tracking your brother for days trying to catch up with him, going through all sorts of danger and horrible conditions, you would be doing it now if you had any tracks to go by, Daryl and your Father would be beyond proud with your effort Merle..."

Merle took a deep breath when she spoke about his brother being with the group and therefore having much better chance at surviving. What she said was true to a degree. Daryl was likely with the group no matter what but that didn't really put him at ease too much. Honestly, without him there the only decent fighters would be Daryl, Shane The Prick and Officer Friendly. He sighed a little bit but nodded in agreement,

"So lon' as tey go' som' peopl' te help him kic' ass tey'll be fin'." he agreed with a slight smirk, "Though mah baby broth'r will still be doin' most'a te ass kickin'. It's in te bloo'."

When she suggested that they check to see if Daryl had actually passed he winced a little bit before shaking his head. He didn't want to check. Not now that he had just accepted a glimmer of hope from her earlier suggestion. In the end he coughed a little bit,

"Yea' let's no'." he suggested in return with a faint, saddened, smile, "Let's jus' hop' tha' he's aliv' lik' yer suggest'd. Hop' tha' Offic'r Frien'ly din' hav' no mor' cuffs though righ'?"

He chuckled darkly at his own poorly tasted joke, even as a few more tears slipped down the side of his face for saying it. After a few moments his little chuckled changed into barely restrained sobs. His brother was gone, either dead or beyond his reach now that the tracks were gone. He swallowed thickly and turned to her, his eyes puffy,

"I... I don' kno' wha' te thin'..." he told her quietly, "I don' kno' if wha' I did was enough. If I had bee' fas'r ten maybe this woul'na happ'n'd... if I ha' bee' nic'r on te roo' we'da bee' bac' wit' te oth'rs an' I coul'a help'd him an' yer... I jus'... I don' kno' if wha' I did was goo' enough..."

He slumped against the jeep almost lifelessly, not sure what would give him the strength to really keep going and not just go through the motions.

Aubrey was glad that she was finally getting through to Merle, he seemed to be being a little bit optimistic now, and she hoped that he would try and see things from a more happy perspective, there was enough misery in the world now without adding more and more to it. Daryl was alive, and she knew it, he would be safe, and more than that, he would probably find his place in the group more without Merle there, he had always been seen as the bad influence.

"Of course." she smiled lightly "I know he's going to be kicking walker ass, and he's going to be worried about you, if you're as close as I think...then he will be thinking that he's failed you as much as you think that you have failed him...but he hasn't failed you has he?"

Although she was trying to make him see things in a happier light, she was also aware that Merle needed to get the hurt out of his system, he needed to actually work his sadness out of him so he could move on. Chances are they would never be able to find Daryl after today, but the hope he was still alive seemed to be working to lighten Merle's mood a little bit.

"Sure, I didn't really fancy picking through burnt corpses in the first place but...if it would have made you feel better then I would have done it." Aubrey smiled softly "Daryl will be fine, I know it, we're fine after all and we made it out of Atlanta on our own."

Moving closer to Merle she stood in front of the jeep, looking at him with a soft gaze, she just wanted to be able to make him feel better and she didn't know how she could do that. Although they had been travelling with him for the past few days, there were still so many things she didn't know about Merle, so many little quirks she didn't understand. Aubrey definately didn't want to do anything to upset him even more.

"I think what you did was amazing." she smiled gently "I know that if my family had done this much for me, I couldn't have any complaints about it...there was nothing else we could have done Merle, we spent nearly all day walking, we camped on the road putting ourselves in danger...we'd be following the trail even now if there was one."

Aubrey stepped in front of Merle and raised her eyes to his own;

"Never give up hope you will see him again Merle, and...you know there are other things, people, to distract you until you do." she smiled softly, of course meaning herself.

Merle chuckled weakly when she mentioned Daryl kicking Walker ass. To be perfectly honest he wasn't worried about Daryl fighting Walkers. He was worried about Daryl fighting people, they were much more dangerous. He smirked faintly and nodded,

"Yea' well if he ge's his ass chew'd on by a Walk'r wh'n I ge' dow' te hell I'll stom' his ass fer bein' suc' a dumbass." he joked a little bit before shaking his head, "Jus' hop' tha' te res'a te grou' is at leas' som'wha' useful yer kno'?"

He smirked faintly when she told him that she didn't want to root through the burnt corpses. Merle was being honest when he said that he could not think of anything that was any less appealing than that idea,

"Yea' me neit'r te be fai'. I can sme' em from ov'r her', I din' really nee' te be up clos' an' pers'n'l te kno' tha'." he joked lightly before nodding in half-hearted agreement, "Yea' well he ough'a be... I taugh' te guy te be as har' an' as tough as me."

For some reason Merle found that Aubrey's reassurances were something that he was actually able to agree with. Relaxing ever so slightly he nodded a little bit even when she made it so that their eyes were meeting. Something was there in her eyes beyond the pity. He didn't like the pity. Beyond that was some understanding and something undeniably positive. He smiled a little bit,

"Yea'... I've don' mah bes' an' I suppos' tha's all I can really giv'." he agreed before chuckling slgihtly, placing a hand on her shoulder, "Yer mor' tan jus' a distrac'n yer kno'. Yer' mah only frien' too yer kno'. Wha' do yer thin' we shoul' do now ten?"

Aubrey didn't really like it when Merle said that he was going down to hell, although from what he had told her he wasn't the best of people before the world went to hell, and he had carried on in the same vein when he had been a part of the group if she was honest. Sometimes she did wonder why he didn't take it as an occasion to actually start to change his ways.

But now there was nobody to enforce the law...why would you bother to follow it? There were new laws in place now, the laws of nature, survive and that was the only thing that mattered any more.

"Glenn, Rick and Shane will be more than capable of making sure the group is alright, I'm sure that they'll be useful when the time comes to it." she smiled gently

Stepping forwards again, Aubrey wrapped her arms around Merle's waist and gave him a small hug, she thought now might be a good time to do that, he was calming down but, she could see that he was still really shaken and upset by what had occurred. As she held him close she kissed his cheek and smiled up at him.

"Yes, that's all you can do and there is no point beating yourself with 'ifs' and 'buts' because what's done is done, and you should be pleased both of you are alive still...regardless of where you are."

Very very glad that Merle had accepted that he had done all he could do, there really wasn't anything else that they could have done, or that it would have been in her power to do, Merle was definitely more used to this lifestyle than she was and Aubrey was already really tired, she couldn't have kept up this camping lark for much longer.

When he asked what they should do she hummed a little bit and looked inside the jeep that they were resting on, maybe it would be a good idea to try and get somewhere more remote, to hole up for a little while somewhere more safe? It would be good to get their strength back, rest, and come up with a plan for what they were going to do in the long term.

"I know, I just didn't want to limit your interaction to just me, we might find other people along the way after all. As for what to do...I don't mean to be a little bit...uhm...selfish, but, I really would like to find a proper bed to sleep in just for a night even."

When she mentioned the others being about to make sure the group was alright he frowned a little bit. Glenn? Glenn was an errand boy and everyone knew it. He could kill Walkers but considering the average Walker had rocks for brains it wasn't saying much. Rick, okay he would probably steer the group right. Shane too if he was pushed enough by Lori to stop just bothering his ass to protect only Lori and Carl,

"Well le's no' tal' abou' tha' fer now yea'?" he suggested with a little bit of a chuckle, "I can tell yer righ' now tha' on'a tem is crap an' anoth'r is only interes'd in protec'in' wha' ge's his dic' wet."

When she wrapped her arms around him he froze for a moment before his body relaxed slightly, not having expected a hug or anything like that. The kiss to his check though made him grin as he had been expecting something like that after the hug. Or had hoped for it at least,

"I guess so. An' I hav' suc' lov'ly distrac'n righ' her' wit' me yea'?" he teased her with a wink before nodding in agreement, "I guess te locat'n ain' too bad'a probl'm fer us."

Merle noticed her glance towards the Jeep and he was quick to pull the burnt corpse out of the car, throwing it to the ground. Finding the keys still in the ignition he grinned a little bit before nodding,

"Yea' le's ge' someplac' nic' an' cosy." he agreed as he hopped up into the driver's seat, "Yer wan' te go te tha' cab'n in the woo's we foun'?"

Aubrey couldn't help but splutter out a laugh when she heard what merle said about Shane, oh of course she had figured out it was Shane and she was more than a little bit amused by the fact that it seemed that everyone in the camp had pretty much caught on. Even though they weren't in the camp any more, she couldn't forget Lori and the way she had tried to lord over the other women, because her 'boyfriend' was in charge of the group.

"Yeah, we have more important things to talk about, like what our own little mini group is going to get up to now that we have no more tracks to follow, we'll have to regroup and have a think before we head off." Aubrey smiled lightly, it was true, whether they tried to think of where Daryl might have gone or not, they'd need to come up with an idea of what to do next.

A little blush crossed her cheeks and she pushed her nerd glasses up her nose when Merle told her that she was a 'lovely distraction', with his accent it was almost enough to make her weak at the knees if she didn't have more sense about her. Swooning in the middle of a zombie apocalypse was not a good idea, let your guard down in the open...

"I'm glad you think so..." she smiled shyly "I just wanted to make sure that you were at least semi okay, and, I don't know about you but, hugs always make me feel better."

When Merle threw the body out of the car, Aubrey bawked a little bit before wandering around to the passenger side and peeking inside, seeing it was clear, she opened the door and sat inside, fastening her seatbelt as she did so. The idea of going to the little wooden cabin made her feel better, she had wanted to stay there before but, it was in the middle of the day they passed it, and Merle had wanted to press on.

"I would love to! I hope that it's got some nice furniture inside it, maybe some food as well because I am hungryyyy..." she grinned "And more than one bedroom, no offense but if there's one bed, it's mine."

Merle, although he had tried to stay out of the politics involved with the group, had seen enough to know that Lori was a bitch but she was leading Shane around by his balls. It was actually rather laughable when he thought about it but right now it really didn't matter. Shane was likely going to continue to be led around by his balls and that was something that, while he found it funny, didn't affect him, Daryl or Aubrey and considering their little mini-group was all he cared about, it was no surprise,

"Yea' I thin' we'r gun' hav' te fin' someplac' mor' perman't." he agreed with a little chuckle, "Wheth'r it's wit' te grou' we fin' aga'n or wit' som' oth'r grou' or still by ou' own. Eith'r way we'll nee' som'wher' big an' easy te defen'."

He smirked a little bit when she blushed at his light praise. She was only a little bit away from swooning if he remembered his female mannerisms correctly. Merle smirked lightly at the idea that he was making her swoon just from speaking to her,

"Well yer ten' te hav' te affec'a makin' me feel a lot bett'r." he told her with a grin and a wink, "Hugs from yer mak' me feel bett'r."

Merle buckled the seatbelt on a whim, not really wanting to be splattered all across the windscreen or the road. Seeing that she was all buckled in as well he turned the keys and the jeep came to life. He immediately set off, laughing as he did so,

"It'll hav' foo' an' if it don' ten I'll go huntin'." he assured her before smirking, "Yea'? Yer an' who's army? It'll be firs' com' firs' serv' on te be' fron'! Or maybe I coul' win it from yer in a gam'?"

"Haha!" Aubrey laughed, sticking her tongue out as she tugged at her own secured seatbelt "We'll see about that."

Fin! :3

Well there was the more emotional side of Merle that we never got to see in the show. Hopefully it was done well enough, I'm unsure :3

Please review, let me know what you think :D

Thanks for reading :3


	3. The Cabin In The Woods

Aubrey was very glad when she saw the Cabin in the distance; it meant that they were going to be closer to actually having a rest, maybe the shower would work? Houses out in the middle of nowhere like this normally had their own generator, if that was right, maybe she could even do some cooking as well? It would be nice to be let loose in the kitchen again. Although she didn't think 'cooking' would really be something Merle went in for.

As they pulled up she unsheathed her large knife and was on alert for walkers, stepping out of the car she wandered close to the house, she didn't see any walkers, which was good, they had taken them out the first time they had passed earlier the same day, if there were more there, it might not be that great a place to stay.

Approaching the house she tested the doorknob, it was locked, not a great sign as it meant there were probably walkers in there, or, it could mean that the cabin had been left by the people who owned it if they tried to get to Atlanta or the CDC. Placing the small knife by the lock, Aubrey frowned softly as she wiggled it against it, eventually, she managed to pick the lock and she grinned, very self-satisfied that she had managed to do it.

"And we're in." she called back to Merle "I'm going to go check inside while you bring the stuff in."

With that Aubrey wandered inside, there was no signs of walkers having attacked the place, although there was a god awful smell. As she came into the kitchen she saw the smell was merely the result of all the products having gone off, and a note on the fridge made her smile. The house was clear and safe;

"Well I'm going to assume the house is clear, this note says that the people who owned it were on holiday until the 13th, when all this started to get really serious, I assume they never made it back, given the smell in here." she grimaced lightly.

Merle had been thinking the whole time that they had been driving to the old cabin in the woods. Hopefully the place was in as good a condition as they had guessed when they were walking past it. Places like that tended to have their own little generators, their own water tanks and their own septic tanks. Which meant, hopefully, that the shower would work, the electrics would work and, thank god, the toilet would work. Merle hadn't had a lot of luxuries before the Walkers came but it really put into perspective what he took for granted in a home.

Nodding to her, he began to load himself up with the supplies and backpacks and things that they had transferred to the jeep to get here. He noted that the area was rather clear so there was a clear line of sight all the way around the cabin. It would mean that they could see any Walkers or attackers before they actually got there. When she poked her head back round the door to tell him the good news he cracked a grin,

"Wh'n te lor' clos's a do'r he op'ns a wind'w!" he joked, not actually believing in god at all, "So yer thin' this is a goo' plac' te hol' up fer now yea'?"

He set some of the bags down on a table in the dining room area, which doubled as the living room area, before glancing up at the lights. Moving to the wall, he flicked the switch, turning the lights on. The light bulb was hesitant it seemed but after a few seconds it was functioning perfectly well. Merle smirked before he turned the light off again,

"Alrigh' tha' means tha' we can put som' blac'ou' curt'ns up an' use som' ligh's fer when it's dark." he smirked a little bit as he collected the last of the bags and weapons, "I really hat' all tha' stumblin' in te' dar' shi'."

Aubrey grinned madly, they really had found one of the best places for them, to be honest she wouldn't have minded killing a few walkers just to get a grubby bed in a hotel room. Now, this place was a fully furnished home and they had it all to themselves for however long they liked. It was in a good place as well because they could make runs into the city for food when they needed it.

"I think we have been really lucky finding this place, it seems a little too good to be true doesn't it?" she smiled lightly "We can stay here for a few days quite comfortably, especially if they have enough dried or canned food for us to live on."

Because they had found this place, Aubrey was in a better than good mood, she was looking forwards to sleeping in a real bed again, using a real bathroom instead of just digging a hole!

When Merle flicked on the lightbulb, Aubrey's face lit up when the bulb did. The place did have its own generator! Oh that was wonderful, that meant that the shower would probably work and the cooker would definately work. The bulb seemed even brighter than they had been before, just because she wasn't used to seeing them on reallly, only the lanterns in camp.

"Oh my god!" she squeaked, wiggling happily "This is amazing! What a great haul! There is no way we should pass up a place this good! As long as we keep the generator, and the water tank working, it's like our own little mini house."

Bending down to look at the food cupboards, Aubrey grinned happily, she was so happy to see that they had dried pasta, rice, lots and lots of canned good, and once she had cleared all the moulded eggs and butter from the fridge, it was mercifully still cold, and the freezer had lots of yummy food in it.

"We're going to have a feast tonight!" she grinned "I thought that you would have loved sneaking around in the dark with your awesome eyesight, you must have eaten a lot of carrots when you were little!"

Merle had to admit that this place was definitely the best place they could hole up in for sure. He chuckled a little bit as he closed the front door. Just to be safe he moved a heavy bookcase in front of it even after he had locked it. He didn't want to be surprised in the middle of the night that was for sure. He smiled a little bit and nodded,

"Yea' tis plac' kinda fell into our laps her' din' it?" he agreed with a small smirk before nodding a little bit, "Well ther' wer' som' rat'ns in te jeep tha' I brough' in wit' us."

He could tell that Aubrey was already in a better mood but he couldn't really blame her on that front. It was much more relaxing to know that they had somewhere safe and secure to sleep at night considering they otherwise had to keep one of them awake at all times.

Merle had to agree with the look on Aubrey's face at the light bulb. It was honestly something of a miracle that it was working and Merle wasn't one to put a lot of stock in miracles normally. But right now working electricity was definitely on the list of miracles that he believed in,

"Yea'... seems tha' te gen'rt'r was topp'd up wit' gas befor' tey lef'." he thought aloud with a grin, "Yea' it seems tha' way don' it? Well ten I sugges' we stay her' fer a bit. If yer wan' maybe ev'n see wha's aroun'. See if it's a goo' plac' te stay fer long'r."

He didn't necessarily want that but it would give them a base camp to search for Daryl from. He could see that she had found some things in the kitchen and laughed a little bit,

"A feas'? Darlin' tod'y stand'd mea' tha' mea' tha' ain' bitin' bac' is a feas'." he teased her before sticking his tongue out at her, "I lik' it fin' bu' I ge' tir'da peopl' always trippin' ov'r me when tey ge' up te us' te can. Cours' yer mus' hav' too sinc' yer've nev'r don' tha' te me ye'."

Aubrey really liked the idea that they could stay here for longer, she loved the place already and she hadn't even been upstairs to see what the bedroom was going to be like. That was on her list after she started to prepare some of the food for them for tonight, she loved cooking before this had happened, she was looking to open her own stylish cupcake stall.

There was no way she could bake now though, there were no in date eggs for miles around, and she hadn't seen a living chicken in like...months.

"I would love that." she grinned, her eyes would have had stars in them if she was an anime character as she span around the kitchen "Such a cute little house that's so well equipped is somewhere we shouldn't just dump and leave so easily, a place like this is hard to find!"

Placing her hand on her hip she looked at Merle with a small pout, she was going to make some lovely pasta for them she thought, or maybe she would cook something from the freezer, just because if they left they didn't have an oven to cook them in, where as they could take the pasta and other things with them to cook on their little fire, or stove.

"Well if you don't want to help me you can make yourself useful and go and see what the situation with the water tank and generator is, see if they need tinkering with." she sighed lightly "Honestly, no appreciation for the culinary arts!"

Sticking her tongue out at Merle she grinned;

"I know I didn't that's because I didn't really want to risk dismemberment if I did trip over you, seriously you were really scary before you came travelling with me, it must be my positive and wonderful influence on you." she laughed

Merle could plainly see that she enjoyed this whole idea of staying longer. Specifically he could tell by the way that she was eying the kitchen that she was looking forward to actually making something to eat in a good kitchen instead of over a roaring fire out in the cold. To be perfectly honest Merle had gotten sick of campfire food and small gas heater food a long time ago.

There were only a certain number of ways you could use baked beans before they all just seemed to meld together make you want to vomit at the sight of the things,

"Yea' a plac' lik' tis is onc' in a lif'tim' now tha' it's all gon' te hell." he agreed as he locked around the living room, noting the liquer cabinent with a grin. Opening it up, he peeked inside before sniffing happily, "Oh ther' ar' no wor's... real alcoh'l aga'n! Oh lif' is goo'!"

He could see that she was pouting athim and he chuckled a little bit before giving her a little salute with his tongue stuck out at her,

"Yea', yea' I'll go chec' te tan's an' te' gen'rat'r whil' yer fiddl' aroun' wit' yer foo' an' yer stov'." he teased her before quickly going down into the basement to check out both the water tank and the generator. He read the readings on both machines before shouting up the stairs, "We go' a full tan'a wat'r bu' te gen'rat'r says it'll giv' us a few mor' days."

Walking back up from the basement, he clicked his tongue at her childish display while smirking a little bit. Chuckling a little bit, he shrugged,

"Hey call it refl'x. It's sav'd me an' yer fr'm walk'rs in te pas' few wee's." he teased her before smirking a little bit and giving her a teasing wink, "Well mayb' I'v bee' a bad influenc' on yer?"

He moved the stuff of the dining room table and began to root around for some cutlery. A good knife and work was something he'd been missing,

"So yer decid' wha' yer makin'?"

Aubrey was glad that Merle was having a good time here as well, maybe he was going to want to stay here for a long time after all? She had been worried that he might want to leave to go and look for Daryl although she didn't think that was a really good idea, wandering around aimlessly without any tracks to follow was not her idea of a good, or of a safe, time. Especially in a world like this.

"I'm not sure giving you alcohol is the best idea in the world." she smirked a little bit "So you'll have to let Aubrey dearest ration you to your daily units."

Of course she was joking, there was no way she would be able to stop Merle from drinking all the alcohol he wanted, and she would have some as well to be honest, now they were in a nice place and safe, it was a good time to enjoy themselves.

"As long as you save some for me I don't see there being a problem, what have they got?" she asked from the kitchen, as she fiddled with the oven.

Bending down she tried to figure out how she was going to start the oven, it seemed to be electric and so things would take a little bit longer because it was an electric one and they were slightly worse than the others. Letting it heat up, she wandered over to the freezer and looked at the many filled shelves before taking out her favourite brand of pizza, grinning she took it out of its box and sighed happily.

Life was good!

When Merle came up from the basement she grinned, he being a bad influence on her? That was possibly true she had been more violent since he had come along but she needed to be to defend herself;

"Made a bad influence on me?" she gasped "With my high moral fibre? I doubt it! Besides, although I didn't have much of a choice I have been traipsing around cold scared and hungry to help you try and find Daryl for the past few days."

Aubrey took her hair down from her two bunches, relaxing a little bit, and she took her glasses off;

"We're having pepperoni stuffed crust pizza, do you want any wedges with it?" she asked with a small smile.

Merle pouted openly when she said that she would have to ration the amount of alcohol he was allowed in one day. Honestly, he much preferred having some kind open bar policy but it seemed that that just wasn't going to cut it. Sighing a little bit, he hung his head a little bit,

"Alrigh' I'll be goo'." he told her before sticking his tongue out at her and picking up some wine, "Bu' we'r havin' a drin' wit' te foo' te celebrat' findin' tis lil plac'!"

There was no way in hell that she would actually be able to stop him from drinking and they both knew it but he was willing to play along until she apparently 'allowed' it. Now the alcohol seemed slightly less tempting, annoyingly enough. Pouting slightly, he shook his head,

"Nothin' goo'." he admitted, "Lo'a red win'... whisk'y bu' crap stuff... vodka tey go' lo'sa tha' an'... wha' te hell? Amaratto actually! Mayb' tey did hav' tast'."

When he emerged from the basement he noticed the pizza box that she was holding in her hands. Grinning a little bit, he nodded in agreement. Pizza was definately a good choice for him right now. He hummed a little bit when she argued against him being a bad influence on her,

"Yea' ev'n wit' yer hig' mor'l fibr' an' shi'. I've been corrup'in' yer from te star' I thin'!" he joked a little bit before sticking his tongue out at her, "Well bett'r te be trapsin' aroun' wit' som'on' yer kno' righ'?"

As she let her hair down, literally, he poured out some wine for them to enjoy with the dinner and even set out some plates he had found. For some reason he wanted to eat this meal properly. He smirked a little bit,

"Only if we'v go' ketch'p te go wit' em." he joked before nodding, "Yea' thro' em in pleas'."

Aubrey was really happy that the people here had some nice wines and even vodka and Amaretto; however, she thought it would be better to save the vodka; it could be used as an antiseptic. Or to blow things up as Merle seemed to like doing. Grinning when Merle insisted on having some wine with their dinner, Aubrey wasn't about to complain, she would like to feel that warm fuzzy feeling she got when drunk again.

"Well apart from the vodka we can have all of that." she grinned "I'm not going to complain about the wine, it's been a long time since I've had some alcohol in my, my tolerance has probably gone right down, so you'll have to look after me and put me to bed."

Grinning a little bit she turned and placed the pizza in the oven, it would take about twenty minutes because it was a thick based pizza, just long enough for the wedges to cook alongside of it. Quite happily she placed some wedges on a warmed baking sheet and placed them in the oven on the top shelf so that they would cook faster than the pizza.

"There we go, it should be done in about twenty minutes, just enough time for us to get ourselves nice and settled in here I think, I'm going to go and pick out my bedroom." Aubrey grinned, moving towards the stairs.

Sighing a little bit she flicked her hair back dramatically, she used to be this bubbly and confident all the time before this happened, now, she was only like this because she knew Merle now, and they were safe, so she could be as flamboyant as she wanted. The truth was she had barely knew Merle before they had been stuck together, but she was glad she did now, he was a nice guy, despite it all.

"To be honest Merle, we didn't know each other when we first were left together, but I'm glad I know you now, you're a nice guy, despite being scary." she teased softly.

With that she grinned and stuck her tongue out;

"Now I'm going to go and get the best room!" Aubrey giggled, racing upstairs.

Merle was getting a little bit annoyed with himself if he was being totally honest with himself. It was just too weird, the way he was acting. Shaking his head a little bit, he tasted some of the wine from the bottle before sighing contentedly. Alcohol running through his system again was something he really enjoyed. He'd been missing it for quite some time now,

"Yea' bu' ther's two bottl'sa vodka. We coul' hav' on' if yer real' wan'." he told her with a smirk before he nodded a little bit, "Oh te win' is actu'lly pretty goo'. Bu' don' worry darlin', I'll mak' sur' tha' yer' alrigh' befor' I pu' yer te bed."

Hearing that the food was going to take a while, Merle nodded before drinking some more wine. Thankfully there was a second bottle because he was burning through this one rather quickly. When she noted that it was enough time to get sorted he nodded in agreement and picked one of the larger bags up off the floor and made his way to the stairs with her. He smirked a little bit,

"Tha's tru' bu' befor' all tis I only really kne' Daryl." he admitted with a little laugh, "An' dam' gir'! I ain' tha' scary no am I? Bu' yer alrigh' too yer kno'. Lo' mor' fun tan I though' anyon' from te mai' grou' coul' be in fac', congrat's on tha'."

Walking upstairs with a small smirk, he noticed that there was only one bedroom and it had a double bed. He sighed a little bit and took another swig from the bottle,

"Well dam', guess tha' mea's I'll hav' te slee' on te sofa." he teased her by pretending to be sad for a moment. Before he smirked, "Com' on, ge' settl'd in. Ten we'll ea' an' ten I'll bea' yer ass at som' drin'in gam's! Mayb' ev'n trut' or dar' an' shi'."

Aubrey picked up her glass of wine before she left to go and look for a bedroom for her, however, she did manage to take a little sip of it, it was really nice wine if she was honest with herself, before she had gotten into this situation she never really had much interest in wine, it was more cocktails and some fierce mixed spirit drinks, although she didn't really have more than one of them a night.

"How gentlemanly of you!" she gasped softly "Although you know I'm not as much of a lightweight as I appear, although you have more years of experience and a bigger frame, don't think that I can't handle my own liquor!" Aubrey giggled.

When she heard that he thought that she was very interesting she smiled happily, she was glad that Merle thought about her like that, to be honest although she wouldn't say anything she really did have a lot of feelings for Merle, he had been her protector while they had been out on the run. She hadn't been too bad herself though, but it had been a great opportunity to get to know the angry and formerly scary Dixon brother.

"No, you're not that scary any more, quite the opposite." Aubrey blushed softly "I'm glad I got this chance to get to know you, you're a very interesting guy. Thanks, I'm glad that you find me interesting enough to converse with."

Pouting a little bit, Aubrey sagged, she didn't want Merle to sleep on the sofa she wanted him to be asleep in the same bed with her, it would make her feel so much safer and...more than that, she wanted to share a bed with Merle just to share a bed with him. Now she had gotten to know him, she had accepted his rugged attractiveness.

"Like I said, don't underestimate me!" she grinned happily "But you don't have to sleep on the sofa you know...we could always share the bed, we have hardly been modest around each other while we were sleeping in the tents, besides...I think I feel safer having you with me."

Unable to stop her little blush, she took a sip of her wine, and wandered back downstairs again, checking on the pizza she sighed softly, it would take a few more minutes yet.

"So what poison shall we try first? And what game?" she asked with a grin.

Merle laughed a little bit when she said she wasn't as much of a lightweight as she looked. To be honest that was kinda hard for him to see because she really did look like a bit of a lightweight. Ah well, best not to judge. After all, people tended to think he wasn't a drunk and he could definitely have been classed as one in the past,

"Uhuh gir'ie yer ain' no wher' ne'r mah skill lev'l." he joked with her before smirking a little bit, "Besid's, we coun'in all tem lil' coc'ta'l drin'sa yers?"

Merle had to admit that he had misjudged Aubrey rather badly. When they had both been with the group he had seen her as a burden and someone who let others do her fighting for her. But she was actually rather handy in a Walker fight. Perhaps she had only not helped because Shane seemed to think women should be confined to their 'traditional' roles,

"Oh so I'm no' scary no mor'? Dam', I'm losin' mah touc'." he joked with a wink before grinning again when she spoke about how interesting he was, "Gir' yer kee' complimen'in me lik' tha' an' i'm gun' star' thin'in inappropriat' thin's."

He noticed that she seemed to deflate at the idea of him not sleeping in the same room as him. To be honest he felt the same way. They had been sharing a tent and it had definitely brought them closer together. Plus she was a sexy piece of ass and he was straight! Why would he not want to be in bed with her? He smirked a little bit,

"Well if yer really wan' tis smelly man in yer bed ten I'm all fer te idea." he told her with a smirk and a wink, "I promis' I'll be on meh bes' behavi'r. Unless yer tell me no' te be."

Following her downstairs he smirked a little bit before pointing to the whiskey bottle as he fetched two small glasses,

"How abou' we play 'I nev'r'." he suggested, "Yer hav' te drin' if yer did te thin' tha' te pers'n sa'd tey nev'r did."

Aubrey placed her hand on her hips with a rather offended look, why wouldn't they count all the cocktails she drank? After all they did have some very high alcohol content and she did have quite a few of the little shooters that were full of so many different types of alcohol they lost count. Of course, Merle was older, and he had drank more straight harsh spirits than her, so, he was more than likely better than her at drinking games when it came down to it.

"Of course we are!" she grinned "You haven't been in the student scene, they are full of all sorts of different alcohol types, you have to be really strong of stomach to stand all those mixed alcohols on one night. But I suppose we will see who wins in the end."

Giggling a little bit when Merle said that he was losing his touch, she didn't think that was such a bad thing, he was really pleasant and sweet to be around, his concern for his brother was touching and his ability to keep her safe made her feel so secure, she couldn't help but want to be closer to him. Aubrey didn't really think it was a bad thing either when he mentioned thinking inappropriate thoughts.

"Sorry to have to tell you like this, but, I am afraid it's true, you are losing your touch, but only around me, the rest of the group will think you're as scary as ever." she grinned "Guessing you aren't so used to compliments huh, if them alone get you thinking inappropriate things?" Aubrey teased.

Unable to stop a happy smile appearing on her lips Aubrey nodded her head, she would be happy to share her bed with Merle, she had been aiming for suggesting it anyway it was the best time she supposed when they first got here. It made her feel safe but also, she had begun to find Merle's particular brad of attractiveness, more than appealing.

"Well then it looks like we're going to be sharing then." she laughed softly "But I wouldn't get your hopes up for the last thing."

Sitting down in the living room she took one of the small glasses and filled it with whiskey, it was strong stuff, and she was probably going to lose this game, it had been so long since she had drunk something like this, although Merle had drunk almost a whole bottle of wine;

"Alright...I have never ever been arrested."

Merle scoffed a little bit in a playful manner. Oh he might not be a student himself but he had drank at some of the student bars and clubs that was targeting the teens and students crowds. It was the best place to sell crappy drugs; the kids couldn't tell it was crap. Hell half the time he just sold them sherbet but made it sound like coke,

"Oh trus' me gir' I bee' on yer studen' scen'. It jus' weren' tha' stron' te me." he teased her before chuckling a little bit at her blatent challenge, "Gir' yer gun' be hurlin' befor' I'm ev'n buzz'd... believ' tha'!"

It was rather bad of him to be losing his touch. His brother would be confused and his father would have been disappointed in his actions to be sure. Dixons looked after family and no one else. That was kinda their thing. But when he was around Aubrey he couldn't help but want to protect her and make sure she was happier. He hoped that Daryl, at least, would understand that,

"Well don' yer go tellin' nobod' 'bou' me losin' mah touc' alrigh'?" he teased her with a smirk before laughing a little bit, "Nah I ain' so us'd te tem. Mos'a te tim' no on' wan's te be ne'r me aft'r all. I'm te craz' re'nec' te tem aft'r all."

Pretending to pout a little bit when she told him not to get his hopes up, Merle refrained from commenting for now and instead just smirked. Sitting down at the table he smirked a little bit as he also took out a deck of cards and set them down. Ah but that was for their next game. He smirked and took a drink happily,

"Oh sev'r'l tim's an' no' jus' in tis stat'." he teased her before smirking a little bit, "Mah tur'... I nev'r gav'a strip teas'."

Aubrey was not really surprised about hearing that Merle had been arrested, although it was a little surprising that he had been arrested in more than one state. She wondered if he had travelled around a lot in his youth or if he had always been around Atlanta? To be honest she would have thought he would have stayed in the same place, he seemed to be the type to stay around the family and not spread his roots so much, or try to move away.

"Several times in several different states?" she asked with a raised eyebrow "I didn't have you pegged down as a guy who liked to travel around, are you from Atlanta originally?"

Running her hands through her hair she swooped it away from her face, as she heard his question she blushed a little bit there was one night where she had gotten incredibly drunk with her boyfriend and they had gotten up to quite a lot of things she wouldn't have gotten up to without the aid of alcohol. When the morning came around she wasn't really impressed that he had done some of those things, rather taken advantage of her drunken state.

"Well there was this one time when I got really really drunk..." Aubrey offered with a large blush on her cheeks, before taking a sip of her whiskey "And really it's not something you hear often anyway, men giving strip teases, it's more a woman's thing right?"

With that she thought about what to ask Merle, she didn't know which one of her questions she should pick she assumed she would get a chance to ask all of them in time though so, it wouldn't really matter.

"I have never had sex, or had sexual contact in public." she said with a small hum.

Merle chuckled a little bit when she didn't look at all surprised by the fact that he had been arrested before. Just showed that she had been paying attention to him that was all. After all, all the hints were there. His hatred of cops for one thing, like when he'd punched out Officer Friendly or when he'd tried to kill Shane The Prick back at camp for just a little insult to his mother (a mother Merle had never liked),

"Yea' well I us'd te trav'l a bit fer mah... busin's." he joked a little bit. The truth was he'd mainly been arrested for possession or distribution of drugs, in several states where he met with suppliers, "I ain' from Atlan'a orgin'lly bu' I am a Georg'a boy. Bor' an' br'd."

Smirking a little bit, he sipped at his drink while watching her blush. There was just something about seeing such a beautiful innocent woman blush that made him want to do more than just sit here playing a drinking game. But he would control himself until she told him she wanted him,

"Ah alcoh'l... te aid'r a' boyfrien's who ain' go' te balls te ask norm'lly or won' tak' no fer an answ'r." he commented with a little chuckle before sticking his tongue out at her with a laugh, "Henc' why I nev'r don' it righ'?"

Hearing her question, he whistled innocently right before he took a drink,

"Le's jus' say tha' jap'n ain' te only on' wit' an ov'rcr'wed subw'y syst'm." he joked before shaking his head. Thinking for a moment, he smirked, "I nev'r had an'l sex."

Aubrey was intrigued, she wanted to know for sure what his buisness was, oh she could guess alright, but she wanted to be able to know for sure! He was just such an interesting character she wanted to be able to understand more about him, and to be honest she wanted him to know about her too, she wanted him to ask about her and her past, what she had done, where she had been. Although she assumed it wasn't really in hsi character to do so.

"For your business huh?" she asked with a grin on her lips "Well if that doesn't sound dodgy...I don't know what does Merle, one of those dangerous guys then I assume?" Aubrey grinned, teasing all in good fun.

Sighing softly she nodded her head, it was true, it did seem to be that way, but that was why after a couple of days she ended up breaking up with the guy, she just had zero respect or trust for him after he did something like that, and it was why she swore never to have more drinks than she could handle in one night. So she didn't end up in that same situation.

"Yes, and the comforter when the girlfriend gets sober again and kicks their ass to the curb the next morning." Aubrey smirked "So I would hope that you have never done anything like that, or my attraction to you will be at least halved, if not eradicated altogether."

When Merle took a drink again she blinked, was this guy not going to take a drink at any point during the game? He was so much more adventurous than her it seemed, and she didn't know if it was a good thing or not, she hoped if they did get closer, she wouldn't be pushed to do anything she didn't want. Not taking a drink at his statement she laughed;

"Nope, not done that either, and no amount of alcohol will make it so, now...I never ever had sex with more than one person."

Hearing the timer on the oven ding, Aubrey frowned softly and motioned for Merle to wait for a few minutes. That time had gone really fast, she thought to herself as she opened up the oven and took the pizza out with a tea towel to protect her hands. She was having a lot of fun with Merle, a few weeks ago she would have thought that was impossible but, as she cast a look behind her to the Dixon drinking his whiskey she couldn't help but smile shyly, it was an undeniable fact that she liked him. Perhaps more than she really should.


	4. Dual Forces

Authors Note:

Greetings my lovely readers! :D

This Chapter I think needs an author's note because it has spurred another story, which will be posted up as soon as possible :3

The new story will revolve around a Governor and Aubrey plotline, instead of a Merle and Aubrey one, sort of like an AU of this original story :D

With that out of the way, please enjoy the chapter! :D

Merle looked around the area constantly as they made their way into the outskirts of the small town, looking for any good shops that hadn't already been looted. Groaning a bit in annoyance when he noticed that there was yet another 7/11 that had been picked clean, he waved Aubrey over to where he was standing,

"Tis plac' is really star'in' te grat' on mah nerv's lil petunia." he joked a little bit as he gestured around them, "Te whol' area loo' lik' it's dun' gun' bee' pic'd clean! Yer thin' ther's lik' a bigg'r grou' roun' tes par's?"

Shrugging a little bit, he lead her around the corner cautiously. Seeing that there were no Walkers around, Merle was getting really rather edgy. There were always Walkers. The only way there wasn't was if someone had managed to get them all. He frowned a little bit before moving over to another 7/11 across the street. He grinned a little bit and turned back to Aubrey,

"Hey looki' wha' I foun'!" he encouraged her with a little chuckle, "Loo's lik' we'v don' foun' te only plac' lef' in tis dam' plac'!"

He chuckled a little bit and turned back to the store, only for his eyes to widen when he realised that he now had a shotgun pointed at his head. There was three men, all three of them armed with shotguns and massive backpacks. The men themselves were like the beginning of a racial joke; a black guy, an Asian guy and a Mexican guy. The black guy was holding the shotgun,

"Who the fuck you supposed to be?" he demanded on Merle with a raised eyebrow, "President of the Rednecks of America club or some shit? And you... girl... what the hell you two doing here?"

Merle snorted, "Ain' non'a yer dam' busin's."

The black man cocked the shotgun while still aiming it at Merle. He glanced to Aubrey,

"I asked the girl. I'll ask again... what the hell you two doing round here huh?"

Aubrey had a lot of fun in the cabin house with Merle, she had gotten to know him a lot more, although there were still some things that she didn't know and didn't expect to know right away she accepted that, and realised that if he wanted to tell her then Merle would do so in his own time. But...she also had to admit that she was developing feelings for him of a non-friendly nature...

How could she not? They slept in the same bed together!

Snapping her head back into the task, she hummed softly and picked out some of the cars left in the 7/11 forecourt and when she couldn't find anything merely pouted and shut the door to the car quietly. This place had been picked clean! Running her hands through her long blue hair she had let down today, she looked over to where Merle was in the shop on the other side of the gas station.

"You found something?" she asked with a happy smile, hopping across the road swiftly "Oh that's awesome, I thought we were going to have to go to further afield to find stuff."

Gasping softly when she saw the men, armed and carrying what looked like a third of the stuff in the shop each, Aubrey pulled out her own weapon, a rather large machete and she looked at them cautiously her heart hammering in her chest as she wondered what they were going to do. Provoking them didn't seem to be a good thing to do...

"We're just looking for some supplies, we don't want any trouble so please, you don't need to use your gun..." she stated with a small voice, obviously very nervous.

Merle had to admit that looking at a black man over the barrel of a gun was a sight that was not uncommon to him, much to the dismay of his mother when she had been alive. He still didn't like the odds that they were currently facing though. Usually he'd had a gun or at least some of his gang to fall back on, people who would be willing to shoot the fucker before he himself lost his head to a freaking shotgun blast. He raised an eyebrow,

"Yer sur' yer wan'a be poin'in tha' thin' at me boy?" he growled dangerously at the black man, "Thin' yer so toug' jus' cus yer go' a shotgu' huh? Well put tha' dow' an' we'll see who te real man her' is yer limp dic' shi'!"

The black man's eyes narrowed and his finger twitched closer to the trigger. He listened to what Aubrey had to say and growled a little bit. Now both the Asian guy and the Mexican guy were glaring at Aubrey. Apparently she'd said precisely the wrong thing,

"Just looking for supplies huh?" he spat at the ground by her feet, "Just like that other group? The one that's been bleeding this area dry? I don't think so bitch!"

Merle spat at the black man, catching him in the eye with the shot. The black man wiped his eye clean as Merle smirked at him and raised his arms out to the sides,

"Yer threa'nin' mah girl'... Ima fuc' yer up." he threatened the black man before her remembered the shotgun just as the black man pumped it, "Ah shi'' tha' ain' fair."

A loud gunshot rang out, followed very quickly by two more, and the black man, the Asian man and the Mexican man all fell to the ground dead. Merle grabbed Aubrey and hid her behind him, wanting to shield her with his body. Before they could say anything a small group of men and women emerged from behind some cars on the opposite end of the street. The lead man, a white man with only a little bit of stubble and a white shirt, put his rifle on his back,

"Nasty business what with all these bandits." he acknowledged in greeting to them before offering a hand with a smile, "Name's Phillip but around here folks call me The Governor. I've got myself a lovely little group and a little town just down the road. You can rest up and resupply there if you want and if you like we'd love you to stay. Always need good people."

Merle blinked a few times, not taking the hand. To his credit, The Governor didn't react to this rudeness at all. Merle turned to Aubrey, "Yer call on tis one..."

Aubrey shook her head at Merle when he threatened the guy with the shotgun, oh this was not going to end well she wanted to be able to fix this but there was nothing that she could do now, seeing the guy pump his shotgun her hand gripped the handle of her machete tighter she would need to act before they could hurt Merle, even though it was his fault that they were probably going to be shot now anyway.

When the man spat at her and the others glared, she bit her lip and her face turned a little bit paler, she hadn't said anything to upset them she didn't think, she had only tried to tell them what they were genuinely here to do. Although her heart beat faster and faster when she heard Merle calling her 'His girl' she even blushed a little bit at the thought.

Crying out as she heard a gunshot she crunched up into herself because she thought it was the bandits shooting at her and Merle, but, she gasped softly as she was pushed behind Merle, hugging her arms around his chest she nuzzled her head against his back, how sweet that he was going to protect her from a bullet but it would leave her all alone.

"W-what?" she asked softly as she felt herself being completely fine, and Merle too, peeking her head around she bit her lip as she saw the other guy, he was really quite handsome and she blushed a little bit, he'd saved them!

Taking his hand, she shook it softly with a small smile;

"I'm not sure about that, we have our own place around these parts...but, I guess it's couldn't hurt to have a look around right Merle?" she asked with a happy smile "We could see what it's like, it's always nice to be around more people too."

Merle had to admit that he would have rather enjoyed having Aubrey hugging him from behind under any other circumstance but when he was preparing to take a bullet (or several) for her then the romance of it dimmed a little in his mind. And probably increased in other people, he admitted, since he was so willing to sacrifice himself for her.

The Governor guy seemed nice enough to Merle but that was the probably. No one in this shit-sack of a world was this nice without expecting something in return. And with how nice this guy was acting, Merle wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that The Governor wanted them to swear loyalty to his cause and do whatever he asked of them.

Merle was nobody's enforcer.

At least not since he left his gang for the last time. He also noted how much Aubrey was blushing and instantly he realised he hated this Governor guy. So that was his plan eh? Act like a knight in shining armour and then creep his way into Aubrey's heart until she would dance like a puppet on a strong for his sick little pleasure? Oh he would have to put a stop to that quick!

Meanwhile The Governor smiled a little bit wider when Aubrey shook his hand,

"Ah right! I'm going to guess it's out of town itself since we haven't run into each other before. I'd remember a pretty face like yours after all." he told her with a wink before grinning, "Yeah come and have a look Merle! Just like... I'm sorry Darling, I don't believe I've gotten your name."

Merle wanted to growl but Aubrey had accepted the invitation now and there was nothing he could do about it. He nodded a little bit towards Aubrey,

"Tha's Aubrey." he told The Governor a little bit bluntly before wrapping an arm around Aubrey's shoulders and grinning at her, "Me an' Aubrey go quit' a bi' bac' by today's stand'ds. Sav'd ma' lif' an' I've been in her debt ev'r sinc."

The Governor clapped his hands a little bit and grinned at the both of them,

"Nice work there Aubrey!" he congratulated her brightly before waving for them to follow him and his group as they began to walk, "Come on guys, this way. It's our sixth month anniversary right about now so we've got good food."

If only for the good food Merle was willing to check it out. Realising that their current position was... close, Merle blushed slightly and instead held his hand out for Aubrey to take, not wanting to run the risk of that slimy Governor taking her hand,

"Yer wan'a escor' me inte' te lion's den?" he teased her with a wink, "No on'I'd rat'r go wit' tan yer."

Aubrey could tell that Merle didn't really like the man who had saved them and she really didn't get why, he would have been dead if it hadn't have been for him. The least that they could do was to check out their little town, it would be nice to maybe make some friends and if something did go wrong they would be able to depend on them for help, maybe even move into their town if their home became overrun or the supplies dried up.

When the Governor complimented her she blushed a little more and laughed softly, oh she could tell that he was a charmer alright but, the way that Merle called her 'lil blueberry' made her heart pound and her knees weaken so...she was pretty sure that she wasn't interested in this Governor guy at all. Although he was a typical 'pretty' man, and it was her type before all this, Aubrey had become attached in a big way to her older rugged counterpart.

"Well thank you Philip, but you don't have to compliment me like that." she whispered softly, touching her pink cheeks lightly "Yeah I'm Aubrey, Aubrey Kipling. I'm pleased to meet you."

Letting her hand drop from his handshake, Aubrey gasped a little bit when Merle pulled her close to him and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, blushing even more she looked up into his cheeky grin and grinned right back, he was so nice to her, and she really didn't expect anything from him. Although she had helped him get off the roof, he'd helped her so much too.

"Hey, I wish you would stop mentioning that, makes me seem a lot tougher than I am." she grinned, poking his cheek good naturedly "And you know I don't expect anything."

Almost pouting when Merle let go of her, she slipped her fingers through his as she held his hand and she smiled lightly as they walked down the street, the wind was pleasant and the heat was just right. Sighing softly she looked up at the sky;

"I think today might be our lucky day, you shouldn't be so sceptical Merle, Philip seems really nice." she whispered softly "But, I think I would much rather stay in our cabin just the two of us..."

Merle was definitely on high alert for this fucker. All these compliments? The bright and friendly attitude? It was all lies, all lies he would swear on Daryl's life! The man was too good, too fake, for this to be how he really felt. But right now they had the guns and they blocked the escape route for him and his little blueberry. He was certain that he'd be able to make it to their little cabin even if they followed and even if they started firing but he wasn't sure if the same was true for Aubrey and he wasn't about to push to find out. So he would play along with the little game The Governor was playing.

For now.

The Governor grinned wider still when he heard Aubrey's name. It wasn't because he knew who she was from before the Walkers. No it wasn't that. It was because he recognised the name though. He had some books in his study to that effect,

"Kipling you say?" he teased her with a gentle smile and a wink, "No relation to the author I assume? Although maybe sweet enough to be related to those lovely little cakes."

Merle smiled a little bit when Aubrey gasped at him holding her close. She was blushing up a storm and he had to admit that it made her look even more attractive than she normally was,

"Ah but yer'v bee' maki' yersel' inte a real toug' on' hav'nt yer?" he mentioned with a little grin. He had been teaching her some tricks after all. He stuck his tongue out at her jokingly, "Tha' is par'a te reas'n why yer ge' som'thin'."

Holding her hand, Merle had to admit that it was nice to just be able to enjoy wandering down a street with a beautiful woman holding his hand. When she spoke he chuckled a little bit. It might be their lucky day but it could also be one hell of a trap... the fun was in figuring out which on it was. He smirked when she said she would rather stay in their cabin. The Governor gave them an odd look, as if he had heard them despite the whispering. Merle waved at him before whispering back to Aubrey,

"I thin' thi' guy is tal'in a loa'a shi'. He's too nic' te be rea'." he told her honestly before smirking a little bit and winking at her, "Anyon'd thin' yer wer' tryin' te ge' me alon'..."

Aubrey really wasn't used to men complimenting her this much and she wondered what she was going to do about it, to be honest, she did like it, but she would much rather have the compliments coming from Merle, in his own little way. She didn't really have a right to complain about it though, it was quite pleasant really, being in the zombie apocalypse tended to make you feel like you were asexual half the time and ugly the rest of the time!

"Haha no!" she laughed "No relation to the author at all, although, when I was in college I was saving money up to open my own Cupcake Shop! So I suppose the link with cakes is true." Aubrey admitted with a little cheeky wink of her own.

When Merle told her that she had been working hard to make herself tougher, Aubrey was glad that he was realising how hard she was working to pick up his little tips and tricks that he was teaching her. Aubrey didnt want to be a liability to Merle, she could tell that she had been when they had first travelled together but, hopefully now he would see her as better.

"I have been trying, you have to make sure that you can take care of yourself in a world like this, like just then...you aren't up against walkers all of the time, sometimes humans can cause problems too." Aubrey stated with a happy but firm expression "I'm thankful that I have such a great teacher."

Spotting the odd look that they were given by the Governor she giggled a little bit, she felt like she was being told off by the teacher on a school field trip, she didn't know why but now that she was with these guys she was a lot more relaxed than she had been before, probably because of their guns and there were more of them now.

"Awwww Merle you don't know that though." Aubrey whispered in return with a small pout "The least we can do is have a look around the place, we can always leave if we don't like it." when he mentioned the fact it seemed she wanted to get him alone Aubrey blushed brightly and she shook her head "W-well no, it's not just that at all!"

Merle had to admit the whole "The Governor flirting with Aubrey" thing was not good in his mind. After all, what was the point of all of these compliments? Was it to lull her into a false sense of security around the sneaky man? Or, worse, was it to try and have Aubrey for himself? If it was the second Merle made sure to remind himself his mental promise from much earlier.

Anyone tries to take Aubrey - Beat them to death with their own internal organs!

The Governor chuckled a little bit when she said that she was no relation to the author, it was too much to hope for that his new town might have links to someone related to such a literary giant after all. He smiled a little bit when she mentioned opening a cupcake shop though,

"I take it you've not been doing much baking since all this started huh?" he commented before smirking a little bit, "You would love it at Woodbury. We've got our own supply of flour and milk and eggs... along with a large supply of sugar. I'm sure you'd be able to make as many cupcakes as you want. Lord knows how much I'd love to take a big old bite out of a cupcake!"

Merle grinned a little bit when she seemed happy with her progress so far. She was coming along as she was doing very well considering that they had very little time or opportunity to train in real life situations without it being massively dangerous,

"Yer lear'in te righ' less'ns quic' I mus' say." he told her as he affectionately ruffled her hair before grinning a little bit at her, giving her a sly wink, "An' I hav' on hell'a a studen'."

The Governor decided that it was better to just lead the way it seemed to Merle because he didn't turn back around at all. Merle smirked a little bit before shaking his head with a little sigh. He supposed that they would have to get a look around,

"Alrigh' alrigh' we can tak'a loo' roun' don' worry bou' it." he assured her before smirking wider at her blush and what she had said, "Not jus' tha' huh? So yer do wan' me all te yersel'... woul' yer kee' me in te bedroo' I wond'r?"

Aubrey's eyes lit up and she almost squeaked in excitement when Philip told her that they had equipment for her to make cupcakes in Woodbury, she would love to make some cakes for her and Merle, of course other people could have some too and she would be more than happy to share them with all of the people in Woodbury. Although she did wonder just how big the little town was, but didn't think it appropriate to ask.

"Oh my that would be amazing!" she laughed happily "I wouldn't want to take your supplies though...I know you probably have more important things to do with them but...I wouldn't mind making some cakes for your anniversary celebrations today, if you'll let me."

The thought of getting back into the kitchen, was making her beyond happy, cooking pasta and things was all well and good but she was really happy to be able to bake, with fresh eggs no less! Sighing softly she swung her hand that was clasped with Merle's, she was just so happy, but a part of her did agree with Merle this seemed all too perfect.

"Of course I'll make sure to give you the biggest one." Aubrey smiled shyly at Merle "I'm looking forwards to you being able to taste my cooking, proper cooking, not reheating canned stuff."

Blushing even more when Merle picked up on what she said Aubrey pulled her hand from his and she waved them in the air as she tried to show just how much she wasn't really thinking about him in the bedroom with her, although, she really was. She didn't want him to share a bed with anyone but her.

"W-well no." she stuttered "I just get jealous when I think of anyone but me sharing a bed with you, so, I'd like to keep you all to myself!" she admitted with a large smile, giving him a little peck on the cheek before she resumed her walking.

Merle noticed how Aubrey's lit up when she was told about the whole cupcake supplies thing. It made Merle want to attack Phillip. He should be the only one to make her feel that way! He was the one who should be in her heart, no Philip The fucking Governor! He tried to bring himself under control but the little smug smirk that The Governor gave him when Aubrey wasn't looking was making that damned freaking hard. The Governor waved his hand a little bit,

"Oh those supplies are mostly just sitting around right now anyway. And if you'd be willing to give us our fair share of the product we'd be very happy to get you the supplies." he told her happily before smirking a little bit, "The anniversary celebrations would be a guaranteed success with any cupcakes you could provide us with. It's been months since some of the children have had the pleasure of such a treat! Not to mention the rest of us."

Merle was more than a little bit annoyed right now. The Governor had completely usurped this from him, this was a type of happiness that he was unable to give her but the damned Governor had given her back one of her life's greatest pleasures. He swallowed enough of his anger to be moving on with though and managed to chuckle a little bit,

"Yer'd giv' me te' bigg'st one? Yer kin' te me. Too kin' perh'ps." he told her with a little grin that was as close to shy as Merle ever really got, "I'll be sur' te enj'y it. I'm sur' tha' yer prop'r coo'd foo' will be ev'n bett'r tan wha' yer already mak' me."

He laughed a little bit when she slipped her out out of his own to wave her hands around frantically in a mad effort to assure him that she didn't see it that way. Which was a shame since he was liking that line of thought. He could see that she didn't actually mean what she was frantically signing too,

"Oh so yer' te possessiv' typ'a lov'r huh?" he teased her, grinning wider when she gave him a peck on the cheek. Deciding to raise her one, he walked after her and gave her ass a light pinch and whispered in her ear, "Goo' cus I am too... no on' els' will be touc'in' yer... jus' me."

Aubrey was so so happy that she was going to be able to cook for everyone again, hopefully they would like the things that she made because she was going to be a little bit rusty, having not made them for a really long time. She doubted that she could ever make a cake that turned out badly though, considering how many recipies she had remembered from the times she was gearing up to open her shop.

"Well then I would be so very happy to get to work." she grinned happily "Oh I'm so excited!"

Almost bouncing with excitement, Aubrey walked faster along the road wanting to get to this place already, but, a little niggling worry had taken place in her mind, she had been with Merle and Merle alone so long, she didn't want him to leave her when he got new friends in this Woodbury place.

Hearing he thought she was too kind to him, Aubrey bit her lip and she shook her head; "I could never be too kind to you Merle, so, don't think that. You are however free to think that my freshly baked cupcakes are the best thing you have tasted since the whole world went downhill!" Aubrey laughed happily.

Unable to do anything but blush softly when he told her that she was a possessive type of lover, Aubrey directed her gaze away from Merle, she couldn't deny it because she was, even though they hadn't really talked about their feelings before, it seemed that they both did have feelings for each other. Even if it was just being attracted to each other, then that was good enough for her.

"Oh!" she exclaimed when she was pinched, rubbing her ass with a small pout she blushed "You didn't have to do it so hard you know, I bruise easily!"

Giggling softly she wrapped her arm around Merle's as they walked and she hummed lightly, it was so nice to be able to hug him like this enjoy the sun together.

The Governor might be able to offer Aubrey cooking, Merle thought to himself with more than just a touch of jealousy, but only if Aubrey decided that she wanted to stay there. Most likely this 'Woodbury' place was going to be something like the tents and shit that the Atlanta group had had going for them before they moved on. And if that was the case then Merle was sure that she would much rather want to stay with him in the cabin than stay there.

Smirking a little bit, The Governor shook his head a little bit with a happy little grin. It was nice to him to see someone so interested in providing a service to the rest of the little community. So many members of the Woodbury community tried to get away with not pulling their weight but right now they were just too young for that kind of talk,

"Well we have taken over some important buildings for our little town." he told them with a proud smile, "One of them is actually the high school here. The Home Ec room has over three dozen ovens and six fridges and freezers... not to mention all the pots and equipment. You'd feel right at home there with the baking kits I'm sure."

Merle smiled a little bit and looked her in the eyes when he replied, "Tha's swee'a yer te say. Bu' we bot' kno' tha' I'm a har' man te ge' alon' wit'. An' yer'v don' amazin' at it. Chanc's are darlin' tha' the'll be te bes' dam' thin's I ev'r tast'd befor' an' aft'r te worl' wen' weird!"

He smirked a little bit at her reaction to him pinching her ass like that. It wasn't, "don't do that" it was "do it lighter" and that made all the difference. Grinning a little bit to himself, he got himself a sneaky grope of the same cheek that he had pinched. He winked at her,

"Still see's perfec' te me." he purred to her before blinking a little bit as he caught sight of something at the end of the road, "Well dam'... thes' guys'a seri's."

The Governor smirked a little bit and waved his hand in the direction of Woodbury. It wasn't quite done yet but what could be seen was impressive for something made after the world had ended. There was a massive wall surrounding the little settlement but it was made in sections so that it could be picked up and driven into the ground further up. So that it could expand when they wanted it to. He smiled at them,

"Isn't she beautiful?" he asked, gesturing to some children playing happily beyond the wall. He turned to Aubrey with a happy smile, "It's all worth it to see their happy little smiles."

Aubrey squeaked a little bit in happiness when she heard that there was a whole home ec room full of cookers and equipment, they were really going to be able to cook up a storm here and she would like to repay their kindess for saving them before, the least she could do was give them soem of her cooking for their little party that they were going to be having tonight. Who knows, maybe she could stay there for the party with Merle, it would be nice to relax with him here.

"Wow, you're so kind ot give me access to all of those places and all that equipment Philip, thank you so much!" she smiled broadly, Aubrey was just so happy.

To be honest, the Merle that she knew from the camp was completely different to this Merle, and although they had some rough days when he was having big withdrawals from his drugs, Aubrey liked to think that she had coped really well with them and was able to come out of the other side without having upset Merle too much.

"I know you haven't been the best person to get along with sometimes Merle but, I'm just glad that I got the chance to know you like this, now that I know the person under the mean and harsh exterior, it's worth getting shouted at a few times." she grinned, sticking out her tongue.

Gasping softly as she saw Woodbury for the first time, Aubrey thought that it was one of the best fortified places she had ever seen, and she bit her lip as she looked from the fences, to the children playing, to Philip, he had done such an amazing job, and the places to live in the town were actual houses! With rooms and...and beds and gardens! Safe gardens!

"Amazing..." she whispered softly "You've done the impossible, creating somewhere so safe in a time like this, I would love to have a closer look!"

Grinning happily Aubrey almost bounced towards the town tugging Merle happily with her.

Merle gritted his teeth to keep from shouting in anger. Oh come on! What the hell was this? Who the hell had the time and the inclination to make something this fucking huge when it was likely that people and Walkers had been trying to kill them the whole time they were building it? Dear god this was fucking ridiculous. It was a very impressive achievement, he begrudgingly accepted, but honestly he was wondering just how The Governor had managed to get enough people to help him make this thing. He eyed The Governor critically... he had a feeling that saving people was one such recruitment method for this place.

The Governor grinned a little bit when Aubrey thanked him so happily for the access to the equipment. It was his pleasure to give said permission, especially when he was getting more and more certain that Aubrey would want to stay. Merle may or may not decide to stay but either way he would do so solely because of Aubrey. And if he chose not to then The Governor would have him killed quietly... he wanted Aubrey's skills though,

"Ah it's my pleasure!" he assured her with a grin, "You see a cook or baker... both, are artists! And what is an artist without being able to practice their art form eh? I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun in our kitchens and using out equipment!"

As they made their way closer to the walls of Woodbury Merle began to get the feeling that he was walking into a trap. But Aubrey had decided so he guessed that they were going to walk right into the potential trap. He chuckled a little bit,

"Awww well I'm gla' yer foun' som'thin' und'r all te lay'rs tha' yer can lik'." he teased her gently, only gently because he was being truthful. In the end he laughed a little bit and shook his head, "Don' go tellin' no on', ma' rep'll be ruin'd!"

Merle's eyes narrowed as Aubrey gushed over The Governor's accomplishment here with Woodbury. It was impressive, don't get him wrong, but it was hardly likely to be all down to The Governor. He was probably just the guy who commanded people to do this and do that, hardly worthy of the praise in Merle's book. The Governor just smiled happily,

"I'm just trying to help as many people as I can." he told her gently, smiling happily and friendly as he did so, "I want the people who're left to know that Woodbury is the shining beacon of hope... and we will guide them back to happiness."

Merle wanted to gag at that point but Aubrey tugged him ahead towards the gates, which began to slowly open upon The Governor's nod.


	5. An Awkward Yet Productive Coffee

Authors Note:

Hello again! Basically I decided to split the introduction to Woodbury because it was such a long chapter that it was going to be a massive ask to read it in one go :D

So here is the second part of Merle and Aubrey's introduction to Woodbury :3

Enjoy! :3

This place was like its own little neighbourhood, and though it needed some more work doing and it was quite small, Aubrey was sure that it would only grow and be able to house more and more people, which would be a great thing for the people left in this world. To have a place like this to come to.

Gently she squeezed Merle's hand and she smiled softly up at him, she could tell that there was something wrong, he definitely wasn't as excited as she was to be here and she wondered why. Maybe it had something to do with what he had said about Philip? Aubrey thought that was probably it, after all, he didn't seem to like or trust him very much.

If Merle didn't like the place then she wouldn't stay here, because, she didn't want to force him to be somewhere that he didn't like.

"Isn't it lovely here Merle?" she asked softly "It's kind of like those perfect neighbourhoods you used to see on Desperate Housewives and shows like that...it's a little bit strange though, don't you think? That even though there are zombies all around there can still be places like this?"

Resting her head on his arm she smiled softly at the children who were playing and the mothers who were watching nearby, although, she did blush softly, everyone seemed to be looking at them, and Aubrey had never much liked being the centre of attention, hiding behind her fringe, she directed her gaze to the floor, and held Merle's hand tighter.

Merle was beginning to contemplate just leaving right now. This Governor character was shady to say the very least. The man just happened to come across them when they were about to be killed? Really? It was too neat, too perfect and way too timed. He wasn't going to say that it was staged but he was very willing to go out on a limb and say that they had been planning to kill those guys anyway and that him and Aubrey being there just gave him something to hold over them.

But he would admit that this place was very nice. It was like the neighbourhoods that Merle had always been chased out of by the police when he was a child. The kind of neighbourhood where you could tell the wives were gold-diggers and were all off fucking the pool boy whenever their husbands didn't buy them a new Mercedes or jaguar. But, he had to admit, they were the biggest houses so it made a heck of a lot more sense to turn these houses into a community than the houses of the poor. Besides, he doubted that any of those rich types had managed to survive this shit sack of a world.

The Governor could tell that Merle was still the one that he needed to convince but he was confident that if he showed them around, convinced them to stay the night, then Aubrey's love for the place would sway Merle over. Merle clicked his tongue a little bit,

"Woul't kno', nev'r really watc'd stuff lik' tha' yer kno'? Nev'r really aim'd'a me now was it?" he teased her a little bit before nodding, "Kno' wha' yer mean though... all te heav' hitt'rs in te tow' woul'a liv'd her' an' now tha' tey'r gon' it's bee' tak'n ov'r by anyon' who nee's it. Tis is te real 'occupy' movemen' righ' her' I say... an' le' it kee' goin'!"

Noticing that she was beginning to get a little uncomfortable with all the stares that she was getting, Merle wrapped an arm around her gently to help her lightly against him and to offer comfort. He also glared at any of the bored-housewife types who were whispering about them. The Governor noticed this and laughed a little bit as he lead them inside, into what was, ironically enough, a working Starbucks,

"Pay them no mind." he told her with a smile before gesturing for them to sit down, "You want a latte or something? It's newly reopened... tastes even better than I remember."

Aubrey laughed softly at the idea of Merle staying in one night to catch up on Desperate Housewives while Daryl was off in the woods hunting, it was a completely odd thing to think about but it made her laugh, she saw that he was probably not the target market for Desperate Housewives or other programmes like that, but, she had watched them herself sometimes with the girls when they were having one of their sleepover nights.

"I guess that's true, I would be a little worried if you did come out of the closet as a secret day time TV fan." she teased softly "These houses look so nice, although, everyone seems to know everyone around here...I think that I would hate to live in a place like this...especially when nobody is my age."

Her cheeks were painted with a painfully red blush as she heard some of the comments about herself, and about Merle, and about them both together actually. Biting her lip she was all too happy to receive the comfort that he provided for her, resting her head against his shoulder again, Aubrey swiftly walked into the house that the Governor was showing them into.

She had been too busy looking at the floor to realise the house was actually a Starbucks, and Aubrey looked up, blinked and then her mouth popped open in surprise;

"Is this for real, a Starbucks coffee shop and...it still works?" she asked incredulously "Oh yes I would love one! If...if that's okay." Aubrey added with a small blush, there was something about Philip that made her want to check that he actually meant what he said, and wasn't just offering to be polite.

Taking a seat on one of the comfy chairs, Aubrey sighed happily and stretched out in the sun like a cat, winding her long blue hair around a finger;

"I really do hate it when people look at me like that." she whispered quietly, more to herself than anyone else, but maybe Merle would catch it, him sitting opposite her.

Merle chuckled when she laughed, probably at the idea of him watching Desperate Housewives. Or, heaven forbid, one of its dozen regional spin-offs. To be honest the whole concept of it was rather offensive to him. It was about women who had too much time and too much money. He wasn't exactly going to aspire to that kind of life style since it was the complete opposite of his own before all the zombies. He had been a criminal in a gang a bit of a hunter before that. He wasn't exactly living the life of luxury off someone else's money and pretending he had problems,

"Yea' I din' ev'n own a tv until bou' '06. Nev'r saw muc' poin' in te dam' thin's yer kno'? I had a newspap'r an' I kne' tha' te sun woul' ris'. Tha' was all I nee'd bac' ten." he told her before chuckling a little bit, "Yea' well whe' yer tv fans los' ther' tv I guess tey realis' tha' peopl' exis' outsid' ter' doo' an' sudd'nly becom' rath'r social."

Merle had to admit that he liked some of the comments flying around about him and Aubrey. Who knew these bored housewives had such active imaginations? Someone had even caught onto the fact that Aubrey was walking with a slight sway to her hips when she was ahead of him... mmmm was Aubrey trying to tantalise and tease him like that? Mmmm yeah he liked the idea of that to be sure. He raised an eyebrow when they walked into the Starbucks,

"Dea' go'... Starbuc' surviv'd?" he muttered before shaking his head a little bit and holding Aubrey's hand. Smirking a little bit, he glanced at The Governor, "Tis is my firs' tim' takin' a beautif'l wom'n fer coffee... so ho' bou' yer let me pay fer te drin's? Espec'lly Aubrey's."

The Governor waved the idea off initially and came because three lattes. Before he could stop him, Merle placed a silver necklace in the man's hand. The Governor blinked once before accepting it. Precious metals and stones were still valuable even if money wasn't. Merle smirked a little bit and whispered into her ear,

"So do I... I don' wan' anyon' bu' me chec'in yer ou'." he told her with a purr before winking, "Te wom'n are all jus' jeal's of how ho' yer are."

The Governor coughed a little bit, smirking a little bit as he did so,

"Not to interrupt..." he teased them both before turning to Aubrey, "So... first reactions to the place?"

Aubrey, when she heard that Merle hadn't had a TV until quite late on, she blinked softly she didn't think that anyone hadn't not owned a TV by the time they had become readily available, but the type of lifestyle that Merle had would mean that he wasn't exactly the type of person to want to take a day to laze in front of the TV, he was more the type to relax taking his shotgun for a long hunt in the forest.

She preferred that thought of him walking among the forest than chilling in front of the TV if she was honest.

Giggling slightly when he mentioned the fact that Starbucks had survived everything, Aubrey had to admit that this place was pretty much as good as it got, she looked like she could be really happy here if she stayed away from the other people, the other gossiping people. Aubrey hated gossips, especially when they were gossiping about her!

"Ah Merle!" Aubrey protested with a small pout "You don't have to pay for it at all, I'm sure that it's just a friendly cup of coffee between new friends!"

But before she could say anything else it seemed he'd already paid for the coffee, pouting even more she took the cup from the Governor with a happy smile on her lips, sipping it softly she gave a happy little moan out, it had been such a long time since she'd had a coffee;

"Mmmmm this is so amazing..." she sighed happily "Thank you so much for inviting us here Philip, I really appreciate you being so friendly, and for saving us earlier...I don't know what had done if you hadn't have come in time."

She was so scared at the thought of losing Merle, which would have happened without his help. Blushing softly, when Merle whispered in her ear, Aubrey's heart pounded hard in her chest and she pressed her cool fingers to her cheeks; "I...I don't think that's the case, I-I mean I'm not really that sort of...uhm material."

When the Governor asked what she thought of the place Aubrey beamed; "Oh I love it! Absolutely love it! I wonder how you've managed it, you must have some great members of your group."

Merle had never understood the wonders of TV and had to admit that with things like desperate housewives (which he had originally thought was a porno) on the airwaves he was probably better off shooting shit and getting arrested. Was much more amusing than half the comedies on and such. He chuckled a little bit when he thought back to his disappointment upon finally getting a TV. Everything had sounded like porn but nothing was actually porn! It had been rather distressing at first.

When he paid for her coffee The Governor was giving a nod of approval and Merle had to actually thank TV for that one. Merle had never bought a coffee for a woman before actually. Whenever he had mentioned 'Coffee' to a woman before it had been code for 'wanna go upstairs and have a go then'. Not exactly romantic but it had worked. But with Aubrey he found himself wanting to be the perfect gentleman when it came to courting her,

"Ah well yer see I'v alrea'y pai'." he teased her a little bit before almost pouting a little bit. Jesus Christ... was she trying to friendzone him? He chuckled a little bit, "Yea'... jus' betwee' frien's I guess ten."

Sipping at the coffee, Merle glared at The Governor when Aubrey thanked him for inviting them here. Inviting them here... was that what that was? Honestly it had felt like they had been taken here by an armed escort. It wasn't like they could have said no to a group with guns after all. The Governor grinned a little bit,

"Ah don't worry about it, it's always nice to meet new people." he told her happily before chuckling a little bit and smirking slightly at Merle, "Oh I'm sure that Merle would have come up with something... he seems like the resourceful type."

Merle smirked right back, knowing that he was going to continue to whisper flirty things into her ear, to disrupt her conversation with The Governor as well as to enjoy flirting with her, "Oh I beg te diff'r... see te wom'n in te corn'r wit' her frien's? See wha' she's doin' wit' her han's? She's jeal'sa yer breas' siz'..."

The Governor beamed at Aubrey's praise for Woodbury and turned to look at Merle expectantly. The redneck blinked a few times before shrugging a little bit. The Governor chuckled a little bit,

"Well thank you for your honest opinions guys. Yes, Aubrey, we have a good group here but we're always looking to expand!" he told her, hinting none-to-subtly, "Well it's getting dark... dangerous out there at night. You could stay at the hotel here if you like?"

Aubrey blinked when she saw the look on Merle's face change a little bit, she wondered what she had said that would have made him upset but then she clicked, she knew that it was probably because she had said that it was a coffee between friends and she almost hit her head on the desk because of it. Oh no now he thought that she meant that he was a friend! When she didn't mean that at all, she just meant it as a coffee between them and Philip.

"Uhm Merle...You know I didn't mean that you were just a friend right?" she asked with a bright smile "We're much closer than that, so don't look so downtrodden okay?" Aubrey whispered softly, probably a good move seeing as Merle wouldn't want the fact he was sad to be broadcast to the Governor, he seemed to be having some sort of macho showdown with him half the time.

Nodding her head she threaded her fingers through Merle's;

"Oh he is, he is an amazing person, while we were making our way back from Atlanta, he totally saved my ass from doing stupid things while on the road, and made camping kinda bearable." she teased happily, as she sipped at her coffee slowly savouring it.

With a little gasp as Merle commented on the fact that the woman in the corner was commenting on her breasts she looked down and pulled her top up with a little blush on her cheeks, oh how embarrassing was this?! Very...;

"I-I'm sure that she was just talking about something else Merle, I don't like the way you keep pointing people out who are looking at me, it makes me embarrassed." she admitted with a cute blush on her cheeks, as she looked up at Merle, twirling her hair about her finger, in her trademark ultimate cute seductive look.

At the offer to stay here for the night, Aubrey bit her lip and looked sideways up at Merle, it was true it was dangerous at night and...a hotel sounded really romantic; "W-we can stay one night right Merle, please? And...a hotel sounds kind of sweet don't you think?"

Merle brightened up when she whispered to him that she saw him as more than a friend. That was good. That was very good! He had avoided the dreaded friendzone and all was right with the world again! Maybe even better when he realised that if he wasn't the friend then the friend in this case was actually The Governor. The Governor had also noticed it apparently since he had hung his head a little bit and refused to meet Aubrey's eyes. He didn't say anything to Aubrey, he just grinned a little bit and gave her hand a gentle squeeze with his own hand,

"Ah yer jus' givin' me too muc' credi'." he told her, chuckling a little bit even as his cheeks flushed slightly before snorting, "Bu' yer still coul't wai' unt'l we foun' a real bed fer yer te res' on."

The Governor chuckled a little bit at their little back and forth there. He raised an eyebrow though when Aubrey suddenly seemed to blush a heck of a lot more just from something that Merle was whispering to her. Merle smirked a little bit and shook his head,

"Nah she was tot'ly tal'in bou' how she din' thin' she matc'd up te yer." he assured her with a purr before getting a good look at her sexy little cute pose. He purred a little bit and licked his lips, "Well... can yer blam' em fer bein' jeal's when yer pull off sexy so well... an' mak' it loo' so easy?"

Merle raised an eyebrow at The Governor but Phillip just chuckled a little bit and stood up from his chair. He placed a small card, with a little address on it, on the table, "It's The Denver. Nice hotel, just around the corner. Tell them The Governor sent you and you might get the penthouse sweet!"

When The Governor had walked away Merle smirked a little bit and whispered huskily into Aubrey's ear,

"Yer sur' yer can trus' me te kee' mah han's wher' we bot' wan' em?" he teased her a little bit before taking her hand and standing up, "Let's ge' to tha' hot'l... I'm sudd'nly feelin' lik' I nee' a be'... how bou' yer?"

Aubrey stood up and thanked the Governor as she should do when he told them that they would get the penthouse suite, she shook his hand and gave him a little hug actually, he was being so kind to them when he really had no need to be kind to them at all! She liked him already but...one of her biggest flaws was being too trusting of people that she perhaps shouldn't, that was why even before coming here she'd had a soft spot for the Dixons.

"Thank you Philip, I appreciate it very much, if there's anything I can do bar baking cupcakes, you just let me know okay?" she asked with her happily cute expression on her lips, it was like she was radiating happiness, and to be honest she was, this was all so perfect.

Once the Governor had gone she went back over to Merle, finished her coffee quickly and nodded her head, she was all too ready to hit the hay after the day that they had, all that walking and that many surprises was making her eyes a little tired but, the coffee was kicking in. Blushing at the thought of what they could get up to in the hotel room, Aubrey picked up the card.

"Well considering we've shared a bed every night since we've been together and you've not tried anything, I think I trust you to keep that up." she smiled softly "Despite your appearance you're a true Southern Gent Merle, but, I might give you my permission to do something different tonight." Aubrey teased softly with a wink, pulling her tongue out a little.

Holding his hand again, she wandered down the street until they came across the hotel around the corner, as soon as they entered the lobby Aubrey found it all to be a little bit surreal...they were actually booking into a hotel...did they have to pay or...or what? Approaching the desk she told them that the Governor had sent them here and true enough the suite was theirs.

"Come on then Merle, let's get upstairs and check out the freebies!" Aubrey joked with a little laugh, dashing up the stairs "First one there gets dibs!"

Merle growled a little bit when Aubrey got up to say goodbye to The Governor and even gave him a little hug for his trouble. God damn it! Aubrey was supposed to have friend-zoned this guy! Why was it that the guy was now apparently out of the friend-zone far enough to get a hug? But it was only a quick one, thankfully, and then The Governor was gone. If that was the last that he saw of that guy before they left then he would be perfectly fine with that.

When she came back over to the table she was so very excited about sharing a hotel with him that Merle couldn't help but grin as well. It as like she was glowing with happiness right now and they hadn't even done anything glow-worthy! Yet. He chuckled a little bit when she said that they had shared a bed for a quite a few nights now and he had been a gentleman with where his hands and arms had gone. They had done some cuddling but that was as inappropriate as his touches had gotten,

"I guess I hav' bee' rath'r gentl'm'nlik'." he joked a little bit and gave her a little wink before purring a little bit and following her, "Don' mak' promis's yer can' kee' Aubrey... cus a promis' lik' tha' I'll hol' yer te! I wan' mah permiss'n te hav' lo'a fun..."

The walk to the hotel was brief but getting booked into the room was even briefer, leading him to believe that The Governor must have told the receptionist sometime earlier. After all, how else would the guy on the front desk have been expecting them? They clearly didn't get enough traffic through here to justify leaving a guy out on the front desk all the time after all.

Chasing her up to the room he let her win before unlocking the door and stepping inside. He whistled in appreciation at the room. It was more like a small flat than a hotel room he had to say. He closed the door and chuckled a little bit,

"Loo's lik' yer'v go' quit' te loa'a freebi's te gath'r." he joked with her, giving her a light pat on the ass, "Mmm wond'r if te bat' wor's... we coul' tak'a bat' togeth'r."

Aubrey couldn't help but giggle happily at the flirting that Merle was doing now that they were on their own, it was more explicit than before even though she swore that the woman who had talked about her her done her fair share of blushing when she had overheard what Merle said about their conversation. Running her hands through her hair she hummed softly, really looking forwards to having a relax in this beautiful hotel room.

"Oh I fully intend to keep that promise Merle." she stated with a soft smile, poking her fingers together she blushed softly, she thought that now would be a good time to confess her feelings but she was so nervous, she could wait a few more hours she supposed "I want to try some things, and, I can think of nobody better to try them with than you."

It had been such a long time between her having sex or being with a man, she wanted to be able to get into the swing of things again with Merle, hopefully...he wouldn't mind too much.

"This room is beautiful." she remarked softly as she took a look around "I can imagine it would have been really expensive when it was used as a real hotel...that being said do you think we have to pay for the room, maybe we should give them something..."

Gasping, she was jolted from her thoughts by the pat on her ass and she blushed softly biting her lip; "I wouldn't mind having a bath with you, actually, I just don't want to waste their water, it's so precious these days I...I would feel so bad."

Merle liked it a lot better when they were on their own. There was no annoying black gunmen holding them up or trying to kill either of them. And there was no 'Phillip The Governor' or any of his shit. Sure it was nice of the guy to set them up in a hotel room this swanky but it wasn't as if he was doing it out of the kindness of his heart. The guy was obviously trying to butter them up for something, the only question in Merle's mind was what exactly the wannabe dictator wanted from them. He smirked a little bit when she said that she intended to keep the promise,

"Oh goo'... yer see I hol' a lo'a fait' in te promis'sa beautif'l wom'n an' tha' mea's I definat'ly got'a hol' yer te yer promis'." he told her with a smirkm absolutely loving the cute way that she poked her fingers together. It was very cute and it just added to her appeal even more, causing him to smirk a little bit, "Yer wan'in' som' tim' te experimen' huh? Well yer foun' yersel' som'on' very willin' te experimen' wit' yer darlin'! I'm sur' togeth'r we can hav' som' fun tim's wit' experimen'in'..."

It had been quite a while since Merle had slept with a woman, since before the outbreak he had actually been in prison due to being betrayed by his gang. And before that his gang hadn't visited town in a while so he hadn't managed to hit up some locals. He was confident in his ability to perform under pressure though; he'd make it good for her to be sure. He smirked a little bit,

"It's te nic'es' hot'l roo' I ev'r been in." he admitted before laughing a little bit, "Yea' I ain' nev'r stay'd som'wher' lik' tis so I ain' go' a clue. As fer payin'... tey din' ask so I say we don' giv' nothin'."

He smirked a little bit when she agreed to his little suggestion and immediately pulled off his vest and his shirt so that he was shirtless next to the bathroom door, "Las' on' in'a rott'n egg? Or yer wan'a watc' as I und's real slo' lik'?"

Aubrey bit her lip a little bit and she was really worried about telling Merle how she felt but she thought that it was going to be the right time to tell him, before they did anything serious and she got even more attached than she was before they physically furthered their relationship. When he stated that they would have a lot of fun experimenting together Aubrey blushed up a storm and she ran her hands through her hair, pulling it behind her back.

Taking a deep breath despite her nerves she decided that she was going to tell Merle right now how she felt, it wouldn't be fair if later he found out that she had different aims and intentions to his own. It might have only been a month or so since they had been separated from the group but, she had completely fallen for the dangerous Dixon during that time.

When he pulled off his top, Aubrey blushed again, but she couldn't help herself from looking over his body swiftly, taking it in, even though she had wanted to do so at a much slower speed, she thought that it would be even harder to say what she was going to say when he was completely naked trying to coerce her into the bath with him.

"Uhm Merle..." she whispered softly "Before we get in the bath there's something that I um...I wanted to tell you, and, I was hoping that you wouldn't mind postponing your disrobing while I...while I tell you." Aubrey whispered nervously.

Nibbling on her lip she realised that there was no going back now and she needed to just bite the bullet and tell him what she was thinking, what she wanted, and how she hoped that their relationship would progress, maybe not now but, eventually perhaps.

"It's just that...I like you Merle." Aubrey stated quietly "I like you a lot and I was just thinking about how, how I have feelings for you that aren't of a friendly nature, and I was wondering if maybe you felt the same we could become more than friends? I-if you want that is."

Merle could tell that she was nervous about something but couldn't for the life of him figure out what she was nervous for. It was like she was preparing to tell him a secret. Perhaps she was going to finally tell him about her feelings for him? To be honest it wouldn't be much of a surprise or a revelation considering they had been flirting up a storm and their feelings towards each other had been all but shouted at each other as being mutually romantic in nature.

When she told him to hold off on disrobing he pouted a little bit before smirking a little bit and beginning to very slowly undo his jeans buttons. After a few seconds of teasing her he chuckled a little bit and stopped, wanting to let her know that he was going to stop for now,

"Alrigh' I guess I can stay cloth'd fer a few mor' minut's." he agreed with a little wink, "No' tha' yer don' wan' te see me in te buff thoug' righ' Aubrey? I kno' yer've bee' tryin' te snea' som' glanc's whe' yer though' I wasn' loo'in'... yer naugh'y girl yer."

He noticed that she was really getting nervous about what she was about to tell him and it was really adding to her attractiveness. Merle was one of those people who found cute actions by cute people to be very attractive and Aubrey was certainly very cute. As she confessed that she liked him (not a surprise but something he was very happy to have confirmed) he grinned a little bit and moved closer towards her. Tilting her head up slightly by a hand under her chin, he gently kissed her on her soft, plump, lips,

"Is tha' goo' enoug' answ'r fer yer?" he teased her gently before smirking faintly, "If no' ten I'll tell yer righ' now tha' I wan' yer. I wan' yer te be mah wom'n... te be min'... I'm gla' tha' tha's som'thin' yer'd wan'."

Aubrey's cheeks flushed and she could feel herself dangerously close to having a nosebleed when he continued to unzip his jeans, she could see more of him than she ever had before and be damned if she wasn't going to take full advantage of that and take a few sneaky peeks. Although she had looked at him without clothes a few times, it hadn't been this long or this willing.

"W-well it's not like you haven't been looking at me when I've been undressing too!" she stated with a pink tinge to her cheeks "S-so it's no big deal if I did once or twice right?"

Pressing her hands to her cheeks she bit her lip and waited with a small feeling of panic beginning to rise in her, she hoped that Merle wasn't going to say that he wasn't interested in her feelings or in her, she didn't think that would be the case. As he approached her, Aubrey felt her heart speeding up, he looked like he was going to kiss her!

Much to her delight, he pressed his lips to her own and she closed her eyes, returning the kiss that he gave her, it was sweet and soft and spoke of the idea that he felt the same way that she did. As the kiss broke Aubrey's eyes fluttered open and she gazed into Merle's cool blue ones.

"I would very happily agree to be your woman." she whispered softly "I guess this means that you have a sexy younger girlfriend, I bet you never thought you would." Aubrey teased softly. 

The End! :D

Well well well Merle and Aubrey finally confessed their feelings for each other! XD

Squee :P

Hope you enjoyed the chapter guys, and follow in order to get the update when the new chapters come out :D

Thanks for reading! :D


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